Prince Noah's selection SYOC
by Fairy not princess
Summary: Annabelle or Ethan would have inherited, but they married to other countries for love. Watch as Noah, the third out of four has his selection, and finds love out of 35 girls with the help of his sister Emmaline. Please submit! 35/35 taken!
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first time ever writing SYOC. Hop you enjoy, please submit one or more characters.**

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><p>Name:<p>

Nicknames?:

Age:

Caste:

Province:

Occupation:

Family:

Hobbies:

Likes:

Dislikes:

Personality:

Best trait(s) (up to three):

Worst trait(s) (same amount as best)

Hair color:

Eye color:

Skin color:

Height:

Weight:

Appereance: Do they look like a celebrity? If so, who? If not, please post link on your profile. Guests, if you submit, it must be a celebrity I can look up so I really know what they look like. Or someone who will come up on google images.

Ethnic background:

What they like to wear for day dresses and evening gowns:

How they like their makeup: (none, simple, tons, elaborate, etc.)

Favorite color:

Birth month:

Glasses: (yes or no)

Lip gloss or lipstick?:

Crown, prince, money or other, or combo:

Heels or flats, or middle:

How do they like wearing their hair:

Favorite material:(chiffon, tulle, silk, sparkles, sequins, etc.)

Talents:

Favorite book:

Languages:

How would she treat people:

Do they have any pets:

Cats or dogs:

Other:

(Optional) Describe their three maids:

(Optional)Do they have a best friend and if so what are they like:

(Optional) What would she wear after her makeover:

(Optional) What type of person do they like/what character traits do they look for in friends:

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><p><strong>I'm going to say to make my life easier, guests may submit characters, but the appearance has to be someone easy to find on google images or I will find someone for you, and it won't be perfect.<strong>

**I want detail, but not Mary-Sues. Both ends of the spectrum, not enough or Mary-Sue will be eliminated.**

**I can change aspects of your character.**

**Please submit!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Few things I want to say so it's not a surprise:**

**-Reviewing helps your character. If you want to know why, PM me.**

**-The first characters I get, roughly the first fiveish, will all get intros. I will be picky selecting my main characters, who will all get makeovers, and the characters with intros can be mains, but it's just easier for me than waiting for a bunch to come in and then write intros**

**-You can submit more than one character, but please try and make them different**

**-Not all my characters can be blonde and blue-eyed, just saying.**

**-I can change aspects of your character**

**-The main characters will be selected when I have most of the forms in**

**-I need a mixture of lower and upper castes**

**-This chapter will introduce Grace, and the next will most likely introduce Danisha**

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><p>Grace looked at the dress, and put it down. It was done, and it looked great. Her client would be picking it up tomorrow, so she was free to do what she wanted now. Without further thought, she went to her room, put on a black leotard and yoga pants, grabbed her pointe shoes and headed out into the open space where she practiced ballet.<p>

She put on her pointe shoes, which she'd already sewn, and practiced. She practiced her pirouettes and fouettes en pointe, as well as jumps and turns, and even simple arabesques and leg exercises, but all on pointe. Then, she turned on the music and just started dancing. She let it flow through her as she danced.

She looked at the clock, and realized she'd been dancing for nearly and hour and a half. She took off her pointe shoes, put on sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt, and went down to check her mailbox on the first floor of the building. If anything had come today, it would be there by now.

She opened the mailbox, and sure enough there was something. She walked back up the stairs to her apartment, went inside, and sat down at the table to read the letter. The first thing she noticed was that the paper was really nice, nicer than the paper normally used in letters. She opened it up, seeing that she had no other mail than an ad for something she wouldn't buy. She took out the letter, and gasped. It was the letter for the selection!How could she have forgotten? Prince Noah was turning twenty, and she was sixteen, so she got the letter. Without being fully aware of what she was doing, she grabbed a pen and came back to sit at the table to fill it out.

Name:Grace Holly Wise

Age:16

Caste:6

Province:Tammins

Occupation:Seamstress

Hmm. What should she put under skills? Should she put the stuff from when she'd been a two, or should she not? She could still do it, especially the gymnastics, so she decided she should.

Skills:Ballet, tumbling, gymnastics, drawing, painting, diving, flute, cello.

Languages spoken:Italian, French, Spanish, English

Eye color:Blue, with a dark ring around the edge of the iris

Hair color:Brown

Skin color:Slightly tan

Height:5'0

Weight:105 lbs

It went on. Questions, questions, questions. She filled the whole thing out. She figured it was worth a shot. There was no harm in going for it, and the Prince was just a guy trying to find someone to spend the rest if his life with. She felt a little bad for him, actually. And if she got in, she could really use the money. What was the harm in trying? None, she answered herself. She left the finished form out on the table, and went to her room. She read some more of the book she'd been reading, and went to sleep. She wouldn't get in, she told herself. Even if she did, she probably would be sent home early on in the competition.

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><p>The next morning was a Saturday. The Province Services office opened at 7:00. Grace looked at her clock. It was six-thirty. Her client would come to pick up the dress at about 1 pm. Grace dressed in a nice dress of hers that she had designed and sewed, grabbed her form, braided her hair, and headed to the Services office with a sweater.<p>

It was 6:45 when she arrived, and though she was near the front of it, there was already a line forming. She hugged her sweater to her, because Tammins was up further North, and even in the Summer the mornings were cold. Finally, the office opened. The line was now growing faster and faster. She was glad that she was at the front of it.

Grace got into the office pretty quickly. Finally, she got to one of the picture stations.

"Form please." One of the people working there said. She handed it to him.

"How the hell does a six have all those talents?" She heard him mutter to himself. She decided to ignore the comment, and went to the photo station.

The bulb flashed before she got a chance to smile.

"Next!" The photographer called.

"What!" She exclaimed. "I didn't even get a chance to smile!"

The photographer gave her a patronizing smile. "Honey, it's not like a six such as yourself is going to get in." He said. The next girl, clearly a two by her clothing, came to the station. As she left, she saw the photographer getting her ready so her photo looked perfect. More than ever now, she was determined to get in. She would show him that a six like her could get in.

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><p><strong>Okay, so my first real SYOC chapter! Hope you liked it! Please review.<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter will introduce Danisha. To be honest, intro chapters are being handed out a little bit randomly from the forms I already have. Also, please do not just submit fives. Sixes are good too, and if they have a good reason, sevens and eights. Be creative! I also need mixed twos, threes and fours. Just because America was a five and the lowest caste doesnt mean that's how I'm doing it.**

**Next chapter will introduce Prince Noah, and the chapter after that, Riley.**

**I do not own the Selection Trilogy.**

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><p>Danisha looked at the clock. Finally! She'd been dancing for long enough she could stop now. She loved dance, but she did it so much, and her toes hurt from her pointe shoes today much more than usual, even with tape. She sat down in the middle of the dance studio in her basement, and took them off, sighing. Today was not a good day to go hunting. It was rainy, and her feet hurt. She looked around the studio.<p>

Her studio was not your average one. It had mirrors and a barre and all the normal stuff a studio usually has, but above the mirrors she had put the stuffed head of an elk she had killed, as well as the horns from a couple bucks, and a goat head.

Although her studio was somewhat different,even though the walls were painted off-white, and not the dark color you might think with all the hunting trophies, she herself looked almost exactly what they think of a ballerina looking like. She was 5'0, on the dot,had long blonde hair and big silvery-blue eyes.

She went upstairs and changed into sweatpants and a tank top, went out into the living room, and whistled for her dogs. She was tired, and she just wanted to play with them.

Bandit, her corgi, came first, followed closely by Pikey, her black lab. A few seconds passed before Sashay, her German Shepard came bounding in and gave her a big, wet, slobbery kiss on the cheek. She leaned her head back, because she herself though strong, wasn't that big.

"Good to see you too Sashay." She said.

She played with them for a while, and got in a big cuddle puddle (in which she was on the very furry bottom), and then Pikey started making the face she only made when she was hungry. She went and filled all their bowls with some food, and went to sit on the couch. Without even really knowing it, she started to sing. She had a lovely voice

She stopped when she heard the mail box clank, signaling that there was now mail. She stood up, went outside, and grabbed it. Most of it was just stuff for her parents, but at the bottom, there was something in really nice paper addressed to her. She opened it, and took out the contents. It was a form for the Selection. Of course!

She put it on the table, and went to grab her favorite fountain pen to fill it out.

Name:Danisha Chase

Age:17

Caste:5

Province:Labrador

Occupation:Singer&Dancer

Skills:Sword fighting, Knife throwing, archery, martial arts, singing, songwriting, choreography, dancing, hunting.

Languages spoken:Italian, French, Spanish, English

Eye color:Silvery blue

Hair color:Blonde

Skin color:White

Height:5'0

Weight:105 lbs

She finished filling out the form. She didn't really want to do it, but her family really needed the money. But anyways, she probably wouldn't get in. She was most definitely not typical princess material. The only thing princess-y about her was her blonde hair and blue eyes. But she wouldn't get in, and even if she did, she wouldn't like the prince. Right?

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><p><strong>Responses to reviews-<strong>

**Zoe-It'll be a lot more clear why I did it when we get Prince Noah's POV next chapter. It isn't just a selection for a boy.**

**EmberandChocolate Returns-Thanks!Glad you like it.**

**Mizuki1-Kiruri13-Thanks! I like Grace too**

**Btw, you can submit more than one character, but the limit is four. Also, if you have more than one character and are t reviewing, they won't do well. **

**Im sorry I haven't been updating, I'm doing nanowrimo, and it's crazy.**

**RQOTD:What Hogwarts house are you in?**


	4. Chapter 4

Just a quick alert, I am no longer taking forms by review. If you already have a character submitted by review, you are okay, but from now on I've decided against it. Sorry.


	5. Chapter 5

**This chapter will be in Prince Noah's POV. It will give you an idea of him, and answer some of the questions I have been asked.**

**The next chapter will introduce Riley, and then the intro chapters will be over. I NEED MORE CHARACTERS!**

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><p><span>Noah's POV<span>

Noah looked around. The girls hadn't even been chosen yet, and there was work being done around the palace to prepare for them, even though there was still a fair amount of time left.

He had a hard time getting his head around the fact that 35 girls would be coming to the palace to become his wife and the future queen. Because it shouldn't have been him. He was the third child, after his oldest sister, Annabelle, and his older brother, Ethan. Annabelle would have inherited, but she and the Prince of Russia had fallen in love, so she was living happily in Russia, ruling there. Russia and Illea were close allies, and the marriage wasn't arranged. Then Ethan would have inherited, as he was next in line, but he, too, fell in love with the royalty of another country-New Asia's, in fact. His marriage helped cement the ties between the two countries who had a very fragile relationship. And so it fell to him to rule. Even if he had, he would have to rule Illea, because his younger sister, Emmaline, had cancer.

He looked at his watch and started. More time had passed than he'd thought, and he had to head down to dinner with his family. As much as possible, his family tried to have dinner together, and even once his selection started, they'd decided to set aside one night a week to have dinner together-probably Saturday, when they had movie night.

He skidded to a halt outside the dining hall, taking a five seconds to catch his breath. The guards ignored him-members of the royal family running to the dining hall because they were late was quite commonplace.

He took a breath and opened the door. His parents and his sister, Emmaline were all already seated at the table, laughing and chatting. They all looked up when they saw him, and then went back to chatting.

"Hi guys." He said when he got closer to the table.

"Hi!" Emmaline said brightly, beating his parents to the reply. He mentally thanked her for getting him out of the punctuality for dinner lecture by his parents. They were pretty cool, but they hated it when he was late for dinner.

"Guess what?" Emmaline said, clearly happy.

"What?" He said.

"I got new hair today!" She exclaimed. She pointed at her shorter than usual blonde hair.. Out of context, it sounded weird, but it wasn't. Emmaline had cancer, and so for her getting a new wig was a big deal. Her other one was longer, and this one shorter.

"I like it." He said. As he spoke, staff appeared with four plates. Tonight it appeared that they would be having pasta with a bolongese sauce. Queen Nicoletta had had her staff share their recipe with the Illean chefs, and the result was amazing.

They laughed and chatted through dinner, like they were a normal family and not the royal family of Illea. Towards the end, things started to go more towards the talk people probably imagined as being what they talked about. The selection. Of course.

Their parents talked about theirs all the time, retelling the same stories over and over, seeming to forget they'd already told them that story a thousand times.

"And then there was that time when you kneed me in the balls, don't forget that."

"You kneed dad in the balls?" Emmaline asked, incredulous. Noah's reaction was about the same. They definitely hadn't heard that story, and it was certainly more interesting than the ones he had heard.

He zoned out as they went into detail about it. He saw his sister's eyes get a little glazed over too as they got into the stories they'd told a thousand times.

He discreetly looked at the watch on his wrist. Thank god. Enough time had passed that he could leave. His parents were just talking about the country and their meetings, and he could see the glaze on Emmaline's eyes. He looked at her, and they had one of those silent sibling conversations.

"Mom, dad, I gotta go." He said. They nodded absently, and he walked over to his sister's place. He rolled her wheelchair back slowly, and turned it. He didn't have to, but otherwise she'd just have to sit in here listening to their parents talk about meetings, which he knew was no fun.

He started to automatically head up to the third floor before he saw his sister looking at him and rolling her eyes.

"It's a Monday smart one." She said, sarcasm in her voice. She laughed at his reaction.

"Oh yeah. It is, isn't it."She kept laughing. He wheeled her to the palace hospital and walked back up to his room. He got ready for bed, and ticked another day off the calendar he had in his room before going to bed. Four more days. Four more days until the girls were announced.

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><p><strong>I know. I'm a horrible person. I haven't updated in forever, and this chapter was really bad. I'm having writer's block, and I was doing nanowrimo. I finished 50k words yesterday, and moved straight on to this. So yeah.<strong>

**RQOTD-Do you play any instruments, and if you do, what? I play violin and cello.**

**Parisismydream-Me too!**

**Lorelai Sofia Petrova-Thanks!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay, so thank you to all my awesome reviewers! I'm going to say it again, that I am no longer taking submissions through review, PM only. Btw, the more you review, the better your character will do, because it tells me you still read and care about this story. **

**This chapter will introduce Riley. Enjoy!**

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><p>Riley straightened her silver knee length dress and looked down at her silver heels, exhaling as she left the office to go get into the car waiting for her out front. She had been sent to Germany-a country friendly with Illea, luckily-to help straighten out some wrinkles between the countries, and it had gone well. She hadn't even needed any help from the senior member of the office who had come with her, in case she needed help.<p>

Once she was on the plane, she settled down easily. All the planes for diplomats were nice, with several rooms on board for them to stay in. The senior member went to a room to spend the time in, as did she. They were pretty nice rooms too-bathroom, bed, mirror, chairs, sound system, TV. She washed the makeup she wore off, which didn't take too long, and changed into her pajamas.

One of the flight attendants came by.

"Your mail." They said, handing it to her. She nodded absently and took it from them, smiling. She looked through it. There were letters from her mother and father, her best friend Marc, who she had met on a job in Italy, and a few of her friends from back home. And then one other. The selection form. She looked at it for a second before deciding to grab a pen to fill it out.

Name:Riley Kramer

Age:18

Caste:3

Province:Honduragua

Occupation:Diplomat

Skills:Negotiating, Holding breath for up to two minutes, Latin dancing, melted crayon artwork

Languages Spoken:English, with phrases from many languages

Eye color:Blue-hazel

Hair color:Pink-Purple Ombre

Height:5'5

Weight:120

It went on, and finally she finished. Why not enter? It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so may as well take the chance and see if she could get in.

She went over to a chair as she heard the automated speaker telling everyone on board to prepare for takeoff and buckle their seatbelt. She could stay in the bed, but she loved takeoff and the feeling of being pressed into a chair, so she moved to one.

The plane took off, flying back to Illea. She tried, but she couldn't get it out of her mind. What if she was Selected?

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><p><strong>Next chapter won't be an intro, but I still need more girls. Thanks to my reviewers!<strong>

**I'm sorry. I'm awful. I haven't updated in so long. My teachers are trying to kill us with homework before break, if my cough doesn't do it first.**

**SwanQueen-I know right? They kill your feet. Thanks! **

**Parisismydream-Whoa! You play a lot!**

**Lorelai Sofia Petrova-Thanks!**

**4love4love-There'll be more about Grace's history explaining it later. It wasn't racist, don't worry. Everyone pictures characters differently, even if that's not how they're described. Yeah, it was a coincidence the first two were ballerinas. And please don't kill me. I like being alive.**

**RQOTD: What sports do you play?**

**I play lacrosse, I ski, I sail, I swim, I do flying trapeze and aerial, I play hockey, and I play volleyball.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry I've been bad on updates! I know. But I've had tons of schoolwork, and over break, when I would have written, I got bronchitis. So yeah. Sorry about that. This chapter will be an airplane. And at the bottom, I will post my list of main characters. It's not permanent, just from what I have. They can change. It's not permanent. But for now, that's who they'll be.**

**Chapters may be short for a little so that I can get them up with my tons of homework.**

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><p><strong>Riley POV<strong>

Riley walked onto the plane quietly. It had been a crazy week. After getting back from her diplomatic trip, her name had been announced. She'd had a week of people swarming into her house. It hadn't been so bad though. They were all nice, and she was actually getting to be part of the Selection!

She looked up to see a small girl with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes sitting on the plane drawing. She was wearing the same thing as Riley-black pants, and a white shirt, with her province flower tucked behind her ear. The only differences was that while she was wearing heels, the other girl was wearing cobalt blue ballet flats, and was in the process of putting her long hair into a ponytail. Riley walked over to her.

"Hi, I'm Riley." She said, extending her hand as the other girl looked up surprisedly.

"I'm Summer." She said, smiling and shaking Riley's outstretched hand. Riley looked at the seat next to her. Summer seemed to get it.

"You can sit down there if you want." She said, clearing her stuff off of it. Riley smiled, and took the seat. They sat in a slightly awkward silence for a moment. Finally Summer broke it.

"What do you do? What caste are you in?" She asked, the second as more of an afterthought.

"I'm a three, training to be a diplomat. You?" She asked.

"I'm a two, a swimmer." She said.

"What did you bring with you?" Riley asked, genuinely curious, but also not wanting more awkward silence.

"Just some of my favorite art supplies, some pictures, my favorite t-shirt and sweatshirt, and my pajamas." She said. She didn't say anything, but looked over at Riley questioningly.

"About the same. My favorite shirt, some pens, some pictures." She said.

They both looked up as two other girls entered the plane. Both of them went to unoccupied corners of the plane, away from all of the others. Summer looked at them, and stood up.

"I'm going to go say hi." Summer said. Riley nodded.

Riley watched as Summer went over to talk to the first girl, who had long brown hair, with green-hazel eyes. She sat down, and chatted with her for a few minutes, then went over to the other girl. With the other girl, she chatted for a few minutes, and then came back to sit next to Riley, with an irritated expression on her face. Riley looked up as Summer went to her sat back down.

"Okay. She's okay but just seemed shy," she said, pointing at the girl with brown hair. "But she," she said, pointing at the other girl, "I didn't like her.

"Why not?" Riley asked, quietly.

"She was aggressive, defensive, and exhibiting several signs of lying. Not quite making eye contact, and playing with her hands." Summer replied at Riley's questioning look. Riley nodded as she felt the plane start to roar down the runway, and she continued to talk with Summer.

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><p>As the plane touched down, Riley breathed out a sigh of relief. Partly because she hated the landing parts of plane rides, but also because of Summer. She'd signed up for this because it was a unique opportunity, and a wonderful chance, and she could make new friends. She already had a friend to show for it. She and Summer had talked on the plane, and Summer was nice. She was a swimmer-a very good one too-but she didn't talk about how good she was until Riley asked, and then, she didn't wallow in them. She simply stated them, and moved on. Riley liked that.<p>

As they taxied to the gate, they continued to chat like they had known each other for a while. Riley was surprised at how friendly Summer had been, and how easy it had been to befriend her. She hadn't really known what she was expecting, but it wasn't quite that. She knew not all of the girls would be that nice, or she just wouldn't like them, but she was glad she already had a friend. She liked people liking her.

As the captain's voice came over the speaker telling them that they could now exit the plane, Riley took a breath. Outside in the terminal, she knew there would be hundreds, maybe thousands, of people in a crowd. She didn't like crowds. At least she had a friend to face them with.

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><p><strong>Okay. Sorry it was short. I'm going to do a few short plane rides for the main characters, and then do makeovers. Once I get to the palace, it'll (probably) be longer and more detailed. For now I just want to give a brief idea of all of the characters to you guys. Without further adieu, the list of Main Characters!<strong>

**Summer Lee**

**Riley Kramer**

**Gracelyn Holly Wise**

**Francesca Benson**

**Anastasia Marie Montgomery**

Main Antagonists

**Lucinda Summerfield**

**Colette Davison**

**So there they are. AT LEAST ONE WILL BE ADDED/CHANGED. So if yours isn't in there, you still might have a chance. I just want to start with less at first so it's easier for me.**

**Responses to reviews-**

**4Love4Love-I'm not sure if she will. Probably not, but there still is a possibility. It's cool that you do gymnastics. It's a fun sport.**

**Lorelai Sofia Petrova-Thanks!**

**Parisismydream-Thanks! Gold isn't dorky, and scuba diving is totally a sport! It's super cool that you do it!**

**HyperFLUFFY-Yeah, I know. **

**Kyramellark7-That's cool!**

**RQOTD-If you could go to one place you haven't been and don't have plans in place to go to already, where would it be?**

**For me it's Thailand (hoping to get on the school trip REALLY, _REALLY_ bad.)**

**Francesca Benson**


	8. Chapter 8

Okay.** So here's the deal. I'm not going to do plane rides for all the characters. Sorry. The main characters will all get plane rides, and the main antagonists. It will be one or two of them to a plane, with two or three other characters. Once I get to the palace, it will be more detailed. **

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><p>Grace's POV<p>

Grace walked onto the plane to see two other girls sitting on the plane. One of them looked up shyly, and one of them stood up and came over to her.'

"Hi, I'm Annalyse." She said, extending her hand to Grace.

"Hi." She said, shaking her hand. There was an awkward silence, and then Annalyse went to sit back down.

She said a polite hello to the other girl on the plane, who said her name was Hannah, but she was very shy, though she seemed very nice. Grace made a mental note to get to know her better, as she did seem nice. Grace said bye, and then went to a seat. She wasn't really one for being very social. Sometimes she was, but not right now.

She went to a seat away from the other girls, and sat down, putting her bag on the seat next to her. Unluckily for her, a tall blonde girl walked in right at that moment from the back of the plane. She glared at Grace for a" second.

"So you're the one who's been holding it up." She said, rolling her eyes in annoyance. Grace thought about all her possible responses, and decided to go with a less scathing one.

"I _am._" She said. The other girl sighed, and looked extremely annoyed.

"Well, stop holding me up. Like, _why _did they have to put me on a plane with a bunch of lower castes. It's like, so insulting."She rolled her eyes yet again. Grace decided it was time to actually say something.

"You know what's insulting? Being put on a plane with someone who thinks I'm lesser than them because I'm poorer." She said, neither her voice nor her gaze wavering as she said it. The other girl whirled around.

"You think you can talk to me like that? Do you know who I am?" She said grandly. In many people, it would have caused them to back down, but not Grace. She wasn't going to let this girl rule over her.

"Actually, I don't _think_ I can talk to you that way. I know I can. And no, I don't know who you are." She said, remaining calm. The other girl scoffed, and flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"Of course you don't. What are you, a six? A seven? I'm Lucinda Summerfield, a famous actor and model. But you wouldn't know that, because it's not like you could afford my movies or magazines." She smiled triumphantly, thinking she had won.

"Or I just don't want to see you and people like you more than I have to." Grace said, staring at Lucinda's eyes, even though with the heels she was wearing, she was about a foot taller than Grace. Not that it was difficult. Finally, Lucinda looked away. Grace sat down in her seat and took out her drawing pad and started working on her drawing of a wolf, looking straight ahead with its sad eyes.

Once the plane took off, and the captain told them it was okay to take off their seat belts and move around the cabin, Hannah came over.

"Thank you for standing up to Lucinda. She was pushing us around a lot earlier before you came, but now she's not." She said. Her voice was still quiet, but it had gained some confidence from earlier.

"No problem." Grace said. Then she lowered her voice. "She's awful." She said, looking over and making sure she couldn't hear. Hannah nodded vigorously.

They chatted for a little while, and then Hannah went back to her seat. A few minutes later, the captain announced that they were starting their descent.

_Well that wasn't so bad._ Grace thought to herself. Maybe this would turn out okay.

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><p>As Grace walked off the plane, she could already hear the crowd from where she, Annalyse, Lucinda, and Hannah were. They were given instructions not to stop and chat with anyone-not because it was bad, but just because they were running on a tight schedule.<p>

Grace adjusted her bag on her shoulder one last time. All the girls made last little adjustments, and then they were ready. The doors swung open, and they were greeted by the roar of the crowd, and rows upon rows of faces. They walked out.

Grace looked around, as she wasn't forbidden from doing that. She was astonished by how many people were yelling her name, and holding signs with her name. She was a six, and as much as she hated to admit it, Lucinda was right-she was a nobody. But there were still people cheering for her.

She took her lead from the other girls, and started smiling and waving. People were throwing flowers at the four of them as they walked down the carpet to the car that was waiting for them. To be honest, it felt a little silly. There were cameras and people going berserk as they walked to a car. Not strange at all. Sure.

Grace snuck a glance at the other three girls. They were also waving and smiling, not wanting to be the weird girl who walked along without acknowledging anybody. They kept walking.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they reached the limo that was waiting for them. Grace did her best not to jump inside. Once the doors shut, the sound of the crowd became, thankfully, muffled. She swung her bag off her shoulder onto the unoccupied seat next to her. The other girls were sitting in the rows ahead of her. They drove, getting closer and closer to the palace, where she would meet the Prince, and the other girls in the competition.

Hopefully they'd be nicer than Lucinda.

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><p><strong>Okay then. Another chapter. This chapter wasn't as good, so sorry. <strong>

**HestiaAbnegationMockingjay-And may the odds be ever in their favor. Oops, wrong story. Haha...**

**Lorelai Sofia Petrova-Thanks. Greece and Scotland are cool places (at least they seem like it. Not like I've been...)**

**4Love4Love-Wasn't her they were talking about. She'll actually get introduced because she's a main. And I _probably_ won't kill her, because I like her too.**

**HyperFLUFFY-Don't worry, I have no plans of making Lucinda or Colette become nice people. Their purpose in this story is to be bitches. But yeah, (I say this as one) there really isn't many places for sadistic weirdos in this world. I literally can count the number of friends I have on my fingers, and my fingers and toes combined can't count all the people that hate me.**

**Dolphinsplash12-Thanks! You can still submit, I need a few more characters.**

**Celtic Silver-Thanks! That's so cool your grandma lives in Thailand! Plus the north pole would be super cool to visit.**

**RQOTD-If you could have three superpowers (one is too difficult) what would they be?**

**For me it's flight, invisibility, and mind manipulation.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Okay, another chapter. This is the last plane ride chapter-I had an odd number, so I decided to put three in this chapter, instead of two and one. Next chapter I'll do makeovers and palace arrivals, and that's probably what the next few chapters will be dedicated to. Although if you want a chapter with Noah and Emmaline, TELL ME via review, and I'll probably do one if people are interested.**

**Thanks to my awesome reviewers!**

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><p>Colette's POV<p>

Colette tapped her (of course) perfectly manicured long hot pink nails impatiently. She'd been driving for, like, ten minutes. Nobody had asked her if she'd needed anything. Who _were _these people? She sighed. At least she still had her phone. She turned it on, seeing that she had a few missed texts from a few of her friends. She took a selfie with her phone, flipping her hair over her shoulder, and once she was satisfied, she sent it to them.

After what seemed like forever, they finally got to the airport. She sighed, annoyed it had taken so long. She stepped out of the car, and strode into the airport. She went to the plane, and to her continued annoyance, found the other girls weren't there yet. She walked onto the plane. Better show them who was in control here.

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><p>Anastasia's POV<p>

Anastasia walked onto the plane with two other girls. One, who seemed quieter, had introduced herself as Holly. She had pale skin, aqua-gray eyes, and brown hair, and was quite small. She was quieter, but didn't seem very shy. The other had introduced herself as Francesca, but had asked both of them to call her Frannie right afterwards. She and Anastasia had been arguing, though neither was really angry. It was more playful arguing.

She looked around the plane, and saw one other girl sitting there. She was quite tall, and painfully thin. She had caramel hair, and vibrant eyes that were between hazel and brown. She looked up from what seemed to be her phone, and sighed.

"You guys took soooo long." She said, dragging out the so.

Anastasia looked at her. Normally she could get along with and be nice to almost anyone, but this girl just rubbed her the wrong way.

She looked at the girl for a few long seconds, and then simply shrugged, her palms up. The other girl gave her a death glare, which didn't really bother Anastasia.

She turned on the other girls.

"Why did you take so long? Do you not have any respect for other people?" She said. Francesca swooped in smoothly with her reply.

"No. Other people simply have respect for us they wanted to show at our send-offs." She said. Anastasia was glad she was there-and that she wasn't the only girl who found the girl annoying. She seemed to be a fairly blunt person, so Anastasia was pretty sure she wasn't charmed by this other girl.

The other girl though, waved this excuse aside.

"They started my send-off early there were so many people there. How could they not? I mean, I'm_ the _Colette Davison. Everyone knows who I am." She said this last part grandly.

Unfortunately enough, she was right. Anastasia did know who she was. She was an actress and model-a rather well known, and pretty good one too. Not like she was going to tell her she was good though.

This was going to be a long plane ride.

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><p>Francesca's POV<p>

They hadn't been that long in the air, or the plane for that matter, and already the tension was stretched like a tightwire. There was so much of it she could almost physically feel it.

So super fun. Just what she loved. She sighed, knowing that it wouldn't just evaporate-at least not with the horrible girl sitting on the plane, and pulled out the computer they'd given her when she'd boarded the plane for the flight to work on her writing. She worked on it for a while, but it was no use. She sighed and closed it. She sat for a while, wishing that she could be painting the view from out the window. After a while, she remembered she had packed a book in her bag, and pulled it out. It was one of her favorites-Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. She lost herself in its pages, completely absorbed by it even though she'd read it many times before.

Before too long, it seemed like, the flight was over. The flight had passed with minimal disturbances-Colette had only yelled at the stewardesses most of the times they brought her something she'd asked for because it wasn't just so, or when they asked her if they wanted something. Otherwise though, it had been completely fine.

She was clued in to the fact they'd landed because Colette started to impatiently sigh at them, standing by the door of the plane, muttering about how she was going to make the prince eliminate them once she met him, or at the very least after her first date with him.

Francesca couldn't wait to be out of her presence.

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><p><strong>Sorry, I didn't really do any of the characters justice, switching POV like that. But at least you have a little view into their character, I hope...<strong>

**4Love4Love-Thanks! Those are cool superpowers. And sometimes it'd just be nice to know what they're saying...**

**Lorelai Sofia Petrova-Those are cool superpowers! And I'm pretty sure there will be antagonism between a lot of people and Lucinda.**

**AnnieElyse-Thanks!**

**HyperFLUFFY-Pyrokinesis would be cool to have.**

**Parisismydream-I wish I could distribute them. But if I could, I would have every single power I could think of.**

**RQOTD-Do you have any pets?**

**I have two very sweet goats.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Alright. So this is the first makeover chapter. A lot of the girls, but not all, will be slightly introduced. It will still be mostly mains, but I'll be working to bring more characters in.**

**THERE ARE STILL SPOTS OPEN! Please Submit!**

**Thanks to all my lovely reviewers! Lorelai Sofia Petrova, Parisismydream, and 4Love4Love, you guys all rock!**

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><p>Grace's POV<p>

Grace stared around in awe as she was hurried along, her head turning to look at the palace. It was a beautiful building, but people were hurrying her along, so she could only see bits and pieces of it. She and the other girls she'd been with on the plane finally arrived at a room filled with activity, and a it looked like a couple of the selected were also there.

A woman looked up and walked over to them.

"Hi, I'm Silvia. Welcome to the palace." She said to all of them, shaking their hands.

"Now if you all could come over here with me and go to the stations please." She said. She directed Grace to station three, where she was greeted by a team of people with an array of different devices.

A woman walked up to her.

"So we're going to be taking your before picture so that people can see how you've changed after your makeover." She informed her.

"Why do we need pictures of it?" Grace asked.

"They'll be airing them on a special Report." She replied. Then she went back to her questions.

"So what do you want to seem like? We can make you-" Grace cut her off.

"I'll look like myself, thanks." She said, a little bit loudly to make sure they heard her over the conversation they were already starting to have over what they could make her seem like. They looked up abruptly, and nodded.

"Okay." She said. They took the photo, and then Grace was sent off to another station.

The washed her skin thoroughly, and let her hair down and took the flower out of it, so it tumbled down her back in loose waves. Every so often, the lovely noise of Lucinda complaining or shouting would be heard, and then die back down. Finally, they seemed to be satisfied, and sent her to (yet another) station, where there was a wide array of tools and products arranged.

At this point, more girls had arrived, and the room was starting to become louder and the stations she had already been to were filled with other girls, and the room was a hub of activity.

The people at the station looked at her, and then another woman came forward.

"So what do you want us to do? Is there a certain look you want?" She asked. Grace though about it for a moment.

"Well..." She began.

A while later, the woman held up a mirror in front of her. Grace looked. She loved it. Her hair, which had previously been a little below her waist in a straight line, was now closer to mid back length and layered. Her nails were turquoise and hot pink, and she had managed to, for the most part, keep the makeup off. She looked different, but still like her. She smiled. The lady who had cut her hair smiled too.

"Now go over there to that table and pick a scent." She told her.

Grace walked over the table as she'd been instructed and looked at all the scents. There were so many! Finally, she chose the rose one for its sweet, delicate scent. One of the attendants at the table marked something on a sheet of paper, and spritzed some onto her wrist, and directed her to another part of the huge room.

When she reached where she'd been instructed to go, she found a rack with her name and several dresses. She finally settled on a forest green one, and a pair of silver heels. Then several people put her hair up into a waterfall braid, and sent her over to the picture station to have her after picture taken. She was then told she could go sit down.

Nobody else was in the area where she was sent, so she just waited there awkwardly. A new group of girls arrived, but since they were early and another group was late, they had their pictures taken and were sent to the area where Grace was until another station opened up.

One of them, who was quite tall, took a seat as far away from the other girls as she could and picked up a magazine to hide her face, though Grace caught her rolling her eyes before she did so. Oh joy. Another Lucinda. Thankfully, Silvia walked on at that moment as another three girls headed over to the area where Grace was waiting-one of whom was Summer.

"Girls, if you're done, please come with me!" She announced to the bustling room. Grace stood up to follow her.

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><p>Elodie's POV<p>

She stood up to go with Silvia and the other girls who had stood up. She'd just finished having her makeover done and had changed into a red dress with black heels, and then had her hair put into a bun.

She picked out a signature scent, and was then hurried along to where Silvia was waiting with a small group of girls. There was several girls she hadn't met, and, unfortunately, one of the girls she hadn't met, but had heard was horrible. Silvia surveyed them, and then the room, and then lead them out to tour the palace.

Two of the girls-Summer and Grace-chatted quietly, while the tall girl kept sighing and tapping her foot impatiently-something difficult to do in heels. Elodie did not like her at all.

One of the girls in the group turned to her as Silvia stopped them the Great Room.

"She's terrible, isn't she?" She said, looking at the annoying girl's back. Elodie didn't have to clarify who she was talking about, and nodded. Colette had been saying how it wasn't _that_ impressive, and that you could tell if someone was below a two because their jaw would drop at the palace.

She was so ready to be done with her.

Finally, Silvia stopped again, rather than just walking with her running commentary on the places they were walking by. She'd shown them the Great Room, the room they would be eating in, how to get to the area where the rooms of the Selected were located, which staircase led to the forbidden third floor, and the women's room. Elodie didn't know what else there was to show them.

"This is the fitness center girls. If you have free time, rather than stay in the women's room, you may come here. There's a variety of different things, including exercise machines, a dance studio, gymnastics equipment, and a swimming pool." She said to them. At the mention of a pool, one of the girls perked up considerably. Silvia continued.

"This gym is one designed specifically for the selected. There are some things purposely not there, but there's specialized equipment there for all of you." She says.

Silvia then walked them back to the Women's room, where she deposited them and asked for the next round of people who were done.

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><p><strong>Okay, another chapter. I'm thinking of doing a main character's POV, and then maybe another, or just introducing another supporting character. If they got an intro, they probably won't get one of these unless they're a main.<strong>

**Fangirling is Life-Thanks!**

**Alia Sharma-Thanks!**

**Lorelai Sofia Petrova-Thanks! Dogs are so cute!**

**HestiaAbnegation11-Never heard of anyone having a shrimp, but that's really cool!**

**RQOTD:Do you like the movie Frozen?**

**Don't kill me, but I don't.**


	11. Chapter 11

**I know. I haven't updated in a while. I got writer's block, and rather than using midwinter break to write, I've been using it to play the Vivaldi double cello concerto. In my defense, It's a really pretty and fun piece.**

**But here's another chapter. This one doesn't have any of the Selected in it, because it's just the royal family. **

**Thanks to all my great reviewers!**

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><p>Noah's POV<p>

Noah paced around his room. The girls were arriving today, and as he wasn't supposed to meet them before tomorrow, he had to stay on the third floor for the entire day to make sure it didn't happen.

"Stop pacing." Emmaline finally said from the corner of the room where she was sitting with a stack of forms on her lap. She'd brought them up as a distraction for him, because although he'd seen the report, he didn't know anything else about the girls. Noah went to his desk and sat down. He was a wreck. One of the thirty-five girls arriving at the palace would become his wife. Not that that was, you know, a big deal or anything.

Finally, he stood up and walked over to where his sister was sitting. Seeming to understand, she wheeled herself over to his desk, where he cleared a large space to put the forms.

They sat for over an hour reading the forms. As well as a picture and information about their appearance, there was information about their interests. Some of them seemed to have nothing in common with him, which made him a little nervous. Then Emmaline reminded him that it didn't actually say anything about their personalities, which reassured him quite a bit.

Finally, he'd finished looking over all of their forms. He then started from the beginning, handing the ones he'd finished to Emmaline, who read them just as eagerly as Noah.

After a few hours, both of them had a vague idea of what caste and profession each girl had, as well as their interests, appearances, and names. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

Noah looked at the clock and sighed. He couldn't go down to do a lot of things he might have otherwise because they weren't on the third floor. Emmaline left to go do something else rather than sit in a room with her stressed brother-not that he could blame her. He went back to pacing.

He walked over to his dad's room. Maybe he would have some advice. After all, he'd gone through a Selection before too, so he had to understand the stress Noah was under right now.

Just as he was about to knock on the door, his dad walked out. He stopped abruptly, not wanting to knock into Noah.

"Hey dad." He said.

His dad broke out laughing at their almost but not quite collision. Noah started laughing too. It wasn't that funny, but he was stressed.

"Are you nervous?"

"Yeah." Noah replied. Maxon ran his fingers through his hair, a slight smile playing on his lips.

"Saying that I was nervous before my Selection was an understatement. I was freaking out when I was in your position." He said. He was still stressed, but it gave Noah some comfort to know he wasn't the only one.

"How am I supposed to know which girl is for me?"Noah asked. His dad looked around.

"If there's girls who you don't connect with or you just don't like when you first meet them, eliminate them. But keep the others." Maxon said. Noah nodded. He suppposed that it made sense.

"So just if I don't click eliminate them, but if they're a good friend keep them around while I try to find a wife?" He asked. Maxon looked around for a second, thinking about it, and then nodded.

"When you put it like that it sounds simple, but yes, effectively, that's what you'll want to do." Noah nodded.

Maxon looked at the clock on the wall and swore.

"Shit!" He said. He looked at Noah.

"We gotta go. Dinner is a little earlier today, and your mom is going to kill us because this is the last dinner we have without any of the girls for a while." He told him.

Noah was still nervous, but he was feeling a little more confident after talking with his dad. Maybe he could do this, and it wouldn't be as hard as he'd thought.

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><p><strong>So there you go. Another chapter. I know it was short, but I'm still getting used to writing Noah and Emmaline.<strong>

**Fangirling is Life-Yeah, I would probably agree with you. The animation was good at least though...**

**Lorelai Sofia Petrova-Thanks! You're definitely right, it was not charming.**

**Alia Sharma-Thanks!**

**RQOTD:Chocolate or vanilla?**

**Chocolate. All the way. Unless I'm having it with peaches.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Another chapter. I probably won't be updating much, as I have a lot going on. Lacrosse started recently, plus teachers giving us massive homework loads.**

**Also, I will be away during early April on Spring Break, so no updates then. I'll find the dates for then, and some other travel I'm doing to tell you guys then.**

**Thanks **Lorelai Sofia Petrova **and **4Love4Love **for being _AMAZING_ people and reviewing my story so much! You guys rock!**

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><p>Summer POV<p>

Summer looked around the huge room that was full of activity. She'd just had her before picture taken, and she and the other girls who were on her plane were now being taken to other stations. All around the room, various girls were in different states of finished-ness. Some were just arriving, some were being taken to tour the palace, and some were picking out dresses or scents.

She was now hustled to a station where the widest array of beauty products she'd ever seen were all set up.

A woman walked over.

"Hello Lady Summer. I'm Sally, and I'll be helping you with your makeover today. Is there anything you want?" She asked.

Summer thought, absentmindedly twirling a piece of her hair around her fingers. _Layers might be nice, and not too much makeup, but having my eyes highlighted might be nice,_ she thought to herself.

"Um, maybe some layers, and, um, not a lot of makeup, but highlighting my eyes a tiny bit maybe?" She said, although it came out as a question.

"Sure. You want anything on your nails?" She asked her.

Summer looked at her nails, which were plain. Then she looked at the wide array of colors.

"Maybe hot pink and silver?" She asked again. Sally nodded.

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><p>Summer looked at herself in the mirror, and was astonished at how not-different she looked, while still looking different. There was a tiny bit of eyeliner popping her blue eyes, and her hair was layered, but still about the same length, though a little shorter. Her nails were painted hot pink, with a thin silver stripe going across the top of them.<p>

She was instructed to go over to the table where there were various bottles of perfume. She spent a while there, pulling out different bottles and putting them back. She finally decided on Ocean over chocolate, deciding that if she wanted to smell like the perfume, she would bake chocolate cookies. Besides, she liked the citrusy smell of Ocean. One of the attendants at the table spritzed some on her, and instructed her to go over to the area with dresses.

Over at the dresses area, she found a rack of dresses with her name. She finally decided on a simple blue one to pop her blue eyes. Besides, even as she had liked the day, it had been so different from what she was used to, that the simpler the dress, the more comfortable she'd be. She did pick a pair of silver heels to go with it, but she was a dancer, so her feet were accustomed to pain and balancing in ways many people found difficult.

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><p>Riley's POV<p>

Riley blinked the spots away from the camera as she was led to another station in the huge bustling room.

The spots finally went away as she was seated at in a chair with an array of beauty products around it. A man came up.

"Hi, I'm Mark, and I'll be helping you with your makeover today Lady..."

"Riley." She supplied for him, smiling.

A slightly older woman came up, and Mark looked behind him.

"This is Jodi, and she'll be helping me out." He said, gesturing at Jodi. Riley nodded.

"Do you want to make your hair a little more...normal?" Jodi asked her. Riley took a strand of her hair and looked at it.

_What's wrong with my hair? It's not bad because it's pink. I like it that way!_ She thought to herself.

"No, I like my hair. Although..." She said, looking at the array of dyes. She was almost due to get her hair touched up, and what better place to have it done than the palace?

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><p>Thirty minutes later, <strong>(<strong>**A/N I've never had my hair dyed don't know how long it takes) **Riley looked into the mirror. She smiled. She loved it!

Her pink hair was now ombred with tones of lavender-blues and pastel blues. Her makeup was done the way she liked it-simple, but with winged eyeliner. She smiled at the Jodi and Mark. They smiled back. Jodi had finally come around to her hair and had enjoyed dyeing it, and even suggested she add the blue and purple. Her nails were done in silver.

"Go pick out a scent, and once you've done that, there's a rack of dresses with your name."Mark said. She smiled at them and stood up. Almost immediately her station was taken by another girl.

Riley walked to the table and was overwhelmed by the sheer number of scents that there was. She pulled out several, putting some back.

Finally, she settled on the gingerlily. It was mainly lily scented, which she might not have gone for, but there was something else that made it smell truly great. One of the attendants, as it appeared they'd done many times today, spritzed some on her, and then directed her to the rack of dresses with her name over it.

She went for a silver dress and silver shoes, as they were her favorite color, and changed into them. She opted to leave her hair down for her after picture to better show off the new colors in her hair. She smiled for the photo, and kept smiling.

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><p>Shaylienne's POV<p>

Shay bounced her knee as she sat in the chair while her stylist talked about all the ways they could change her image in what seemed to her, a drastic way. She didn't want her face covered in layer upon layer of makeup, or her hair dyed blonde. She wanted to still recognize herself.

When the stylist started talking about just little things they could change, she started to relax.

Finally, he started in. Nothing drastic-just a little bit of a trim to her hair, because she hadn't gotten one in a while. She didn't like it, but they put a bit of makeup on her, though she instructed them to go as light as possible, which they seemed to do. When they held the mirror in front of her, she was happy-she looked pretty much the same. Her hair was a bit shorter, and there were some subtle highlights on her face, but she liked it. She looked very much like herself.

Twenty minutes later, she emerged from the dressing room wearing a royal blue sleevless chiffon dress, with a blue sash and some silver filigree embroidered on it. She'd paired it with white flats, and her hair was down in soft curls. She loved it-it was simple, but very elegant, much like her.

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><p>Lucinda's POV<p>

Lucinda sighed impatiently as a stylist came over. She looked at her nails, bored. Well, that was one thing. She'd have her nails redone. Finally, after seeming to chat with everyone in the room, he _finally_ came over to her.

He talked to her about what they could do to change her look blah, blah, blah. She tuned him out. Once she found out she'd (obviously) been Selected, she'd started thinking about it. She knew exactly what she wanted to do. When he stopped, looking at her for her opinion, she started.

"I want my hair layered and cut shorter, I want eye makeup to accent my eyes, I want my nails redone, and I want makeup on the rest of my face. Oh, and I want to look better than any of the other girls." She said. Her stylist took a minute to digest what she'd said (was he dumb or something?), and then set to work.

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><p>Lucinda looked in the mirror. There were many more people around her than any of the other girls, which was good. She was pleased with her nails-blue and green ombre with a pink sparkly top coat. Her hair had been straightened, plus some other stuff, and had been re-cut. She'd had her makeup done nicely-eye makeup popping her eyes, but not very much eyeshadow, and a good deal of other things covering her face.<p>

Several of the people working on her had been hopeless, so she'd had to tell them to go away. Loudly. Forcefully. Finally, because the palace people were slow, though they did a good job, they were finished and told her to go pick a scent. She settled on the coconut. It was a good smell-similar to vanilla, like Queen America had worn, but not copy-cat similar. If there was one thing she didn't want to be remembered as was the girl who copied. She'd win her own way, thanks very much.

Once she'd picked out a scent and had it spritzed on her, she was told to pick a dress. She picked a dark purple one with a v-neck that went down quite low, with a very short skirt, and was very tight. She put on a pair of very high purple heels. Finally, she was ready to have her picture taken. She looked pretty different, and she was ready. She would win, she knew it. The other girls wouldn't know what had hit them when they were sent home in a few days. Because she was sure that was what would happen.

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><p><strong>Here's another chapter! It's been a while, but it's a little longer I think. Hope you enjoyed.<strong>

**4Love4Love-Chocolate is life! Yes! But you'll probably get to see his reaction to the girls after the interviews before the first elimination, so yeah.**

**HestiaAbnegation11-Vanilla's good, especially with fruit...**

**Lorelai Sofia Petrova-Thanks! Chocolate is amazing! But vanilla ice cream is good-especially with peaches...**

**RQOTD: What's your patronus?**

**Mine is a wolf or an owl...**

**My friends and I all agreed on that. And when I took quizzes that's what I ended up with. Which was funny.**


	13. Chapter 13

**So here's my last makeover chapter. I'm thinking of having the next chapter be when they meet Noah, but if you want it to be dinner, please tell me. **

**I know I didn't do every girl's makeover, so I tried to do just a few of the other girls who I liked but weren't quite mains. Because I don't have the time to do a makeover for every girl.**

**Also, the profile pics are kinda like what they look like after, though hair, possibly makeup and dress are probably different with a few exceptions. But they're just there to give a loose idea.**

**Thanks to **4Love4Love, Lorelai Sofia Petrova, **and **HestiaAbnegation11** for being awesome reviewers!**

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><p>Anastasia's POV<p>

Anastasia was ushered into a room along with the other girls who'd been on her plane. She liked most of them, but she was glad for any excuse to get away from Colette, because she was awful, and from the way the other girls sighed when she was taken to have her picture taken, she wasn't the only one.

She heard a girl yelling, and then saw some poor maid scurrying away from her. _She and Colette will get along perfectly,_ she thought to herself.

"Lady Anastasia, if you'll come with me please." Anastasia followed the person. She was put on a stool, her hair was pushed out of her face and combed out a bit, and there was a flash from the camera that was set up. Then she was led to another station that had a huge array of cosmetics and beauty products.

A young woman who introduced herself as Jasmine, but told Anastasia to call her Jazz, told her she would be her stylist. Anastasia smiled at her.

"So what do you want to change today?" Jazz asked her. Anastasia thought. She wasn't sure.

"I'm not sure." She said. Jazz thought for a moment.

"I could add a few small layers and trim your hair a bit, or give you some side bangs." She suggested. Anastasia nodded. That sounded good. She didn't want to drastically change, but a little bit might be nice. She didn't want to remove some of the natural highlights she had in her hair from being outside with her sister Gracie and her black lab Onyx, but trimming her hair a bit would be cool. And she'd always thought about side bangs, but never actually gotten them.

"Do you want anything on your nails?"

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><p>Forty minutes later, a mirror was finally held in front of her. She smiled. Her hair was a bit shorter, with subtle layers, she had some slight side bangs, and her nails were pink. Part of the reason the mirror took so long was because her nails had to dry.<p>

She had some mascara on, but the rest of her makeup was pretty simple.

"I love it!" She said. Jazz smiled, and directed her over to the table where there was rows of perfume bottles.

She smelled several, pulled a few out, put some back, and finally settled on peach. She loved peaches, and she loved the delicate smell of the perfume. Once one of the attendants had sprayed some on her, she was directed to an area with some changing rooms and racks of dresses.

Anastasia saw a rack of dresses with her name over it. She remembered the people who had come to her house measuring her and asking her about her preferences for dresses, and thought they'd done a wonderful job. All the dresses were brightly colored, and with fun materials.

She finally settled on a bright red silk chiffon dress that she really liked, paired with the turquoise chip bracelet she was wearing and a pair of beautiful matching red heels. She had her after picture taken, and she was ready to go.

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><p>Anna's POV<p>

Anna looked around as she was led to have her picture taken. She smiled sweetly for it. Nobody except her knew how much she would change today.

She was led to a station to have her makeover done. She eyed the wide selection of cosmetics satisfied, knowing it would be well within the capabilities of the palace staff to do what she wanted done. A man walked over.

"I'm Ted, an I'll be your stylist today. Is there anything you want to change?" He asked her. She nodded.

"I want my hair dyed red, and I want it mid-length and layered. I want kinda a neutral toenail polish, but nothing on my fingers. And I want light makeup." Anna said. The guy blinked once, and then started in.

* * *

><p>Anna looked into the mirror. It was perfect. She didn't look how Queen America looked now-she looked how Queen America had looked when she'd been in her own selection. It was perfect. What better way to end up as the future Queen than imitating the current one?<p>

When she nodded her satisfaction, she was directed over to a table with bottles of perfume. She searched for a vanilla one, and, thankfully, nobody had taken it yet. The attendants put some of it on her, and directed her to a rack of dresses bearing her name. She, like Queen America had done, chose a simple cream colored one, with kitten heels. She was ready.

* * *

><p>Francesca's POV<p>

Francesca blinked the spots away from her photo as she was put into a chair to start her makeover. A woman came up behind her and asked her about changes she might want. She took a strand of her hair and looked at it. It went almost all the way down to her waist.

"I think I want my hair more mid back length with some layers, and then in a braid." She said.

"Okay. Anything on your nails? And what about makeup?" She asked Francesca.

She looked at her nails. Why not?

"Simple makeup, and maybe green on my nails?" It came out as a question even though she was sure of what she wanted.

"Sure."

* * *

><p>A mirror was held up in front of her. She smiled. Her makeup was simple but pretty, and her hair was much shorter and in a simple, loose braid. She was directed over to a table with perfumes on it. She decided on the Wildflower one-it was sweet and vaguely flowery, but not cloyingly so. She was told to go pick a dress from the rack with her name on it.<p>

She looked at the dresses on her rack, and decided on a black silk one. Her makeup was simple, but dark, and with the black dress it looked great, but her braid helped to balance out the dark look. She chose a pair of black heels to finish out the look. She had her picture taken again, and once again she blinked away spots.

* * *

><p>Colette's POV<p>

Colette sighed as she waited for her stylist. These people seemed to have no respect for schedules. Finally, after forever, a man introduced himself as Dylan. He started to talk, but she cut in over him.

"I want my hair dyed caramel, and then lightly curled, I want a good deal of mascara and eye shadow, and I want some blush. And some moderately pink lipstick." She said.

"Ok-"

"Oh, and I want my hair cut about two inches." She said.

"Okay. Anything on your nails?"

"Gold." She said. She'd thought this out, and she knew what she wanted. She wasn't going to be one of the girls who took forever to think of a few little changes.

* * *

><p>They did the trim first, and then the dye. While they let it set, several people started to work on her nails and makeup. Once the dye was done setting, they started curling her hair, on her instructions, making them looser curls.<p>

Finally, they held a mirror up for her to see. She nodded. It was slow, but it was probably better than she could have gotten at one of the places in Angeles that wasn't the palace.

Once she nodded her approval, she was sent to go pick out a signature scent (peppermint), and then was sent to choose a dress.

She went for dark purple sparkly almost-minidress, and paired it with some strappy silver heels. She had her picture taken, and smiled for it. She was going to win this.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, longer chapter, plus two updates in two days!<strong>

**That was probably the last makeover chapter. There's a lot of good characters, but I want to do other stuff too.**

**HestiaAbnegation11-That's cool!**

**Lorelai Sofia Petrova-Thanks! Tabby cats are awesome!**

**Dolphinsplash12-Thanks! I'm not doing one for every character, but some will be introduced before they meet Noah.**

**Alia Sharma-I'll introduce the rest when they meet Noah most likely**

**4Love4Love-That's awesome! Horses are really cool. I also like Summer, and real people like Lucinda suck, but they're fun to write.**

**RQOTD-Skiing or snowboarding?**

**Skiing. I'm a skier all the way. But with the year we're having up in the Pacific Northwest, all of us are sucking wind.**


	14. Chapter 14

**So I'm going to spend two to four chapters on this, so if your character isn't in it, don't freak please.**

**PLEASE READ THIS PART:They talk for longer than I wrote probably, but switching characters is hard, so I made it kinda short.**

**Thanks to my great reviewers **4Love4Love**,** HestiaAbnegation11**,** Dolphinsplash12**, and** Lorelai Sofia Petrova**!**

**So they're at the first day meeting Noah. Nobody met him the night before because I don't want to have to pick one character to meet him early because I feel like that's a bit favorite-y. So yeah. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Colette's POV<p>

"Colete Davison." Prince Noah called. Colette smirked in a self-satisfied way, to be first, and flipped her long hair over one shoulder and stood up. Her dress was knee length, with a slit midway up her thigh and a _very_ low neckline, and was tight-fitting and dark green and sparkly. She was wearing emerald hair clips and earrings to go with it, and a little bit of green eye shadow. She walked over.

"Hello Lady Colette." Prince Noah said a little awkwardly as she sat down after curtsying.

"Hi." She said, leaning forward to give him a clear view down her dress. To his credit, he didn't react.

"So I hear that you're a model here in Angeles." He said, trying to get her to sit up.

"Yeah, I'm a model. It's fun." She said.

"What do you like here in Angeles?" He asked her, curious to know what she liked about both of their home provinces that he didn't get much of a chance to explore.

"It has great food, and there's some really nice salons and a lot of the jobs I get are in Angeles so I don't have to travel too much." She said.

"Well Lady Colette, it's been a pleasure talking to you, but I have thirty-four other women to meet, and I hope they'll be just as lovely as you." He said.

She walked back to her seat, a bit annoyed at how short it'd been, but satisfied. She would win this, and the prize at the end would be him.

* * *

><p>Shaylienne's POV<p>

Shay watched Colette walk back to their seat, feeling bad for the Prince. They'd all been discreetly watching, and seen her bending over to give him a clear shot down her tiny dress.

"Shaylienne Green." He called. She stood up, smoothing out her kelly green knee length chiffon dress, and making sure she didn't trip over her silver heels as she stood up. She made sure her hair was in place without knocking off one of the diamond earrings that matched the diamond bracelet on her wrist. She walked over, again taking care not to trip in her heels. She reached the couch, curtsied, and was glad to sit down so that she didn't fall over in the precarious devices strapped to her feet.

"Hello Lady Shaylienne."

"Call me Shay." She said. Noah smiled slightly.

"Alright L-Shay."

"So other than being a Prince, what do you like to do?" She asked him.

"I ride, I like photography and swimming, and I guess I do some archery." He said. There was silence for a second or two.

"What have you written? I know you write." He said, trying to move the conversation along.

"Not too much-I've written for some magazines, but I'm still working on my books." She said.

"Do you have siblings?" He asked her, curious.

"Yeah, and older brother and a younger brother. I guess I like them, but they can be pretty annoying sometimes. Do you like your siblings?" She asked him. The question caught him a bit off guard.

"Yeah. The older ones are nice, but annoy me sometimes, but I like them, and I really like Emmaline." He said. Silence for a moment.

"Well Shay, I have to meet thirty-three other girls, but it was a pleasure meeting you." He said.

She nodded, rose, and went back to her seat. He was pretty nice.

* * *

><p>Jasey's POV<p>

Jasey watched Shaylienne walk back to her seat. Then her name was called. She stood up in her silver-gold kitten heels, making sure her green and silver satin dress was smoothed out, and walked over. She curtsied, and sat down on the couch as Noah gestured for her to do.

She looked at him for a moment, astonished. She was actually meeting the Prince! She'd loved him ever since she was a little girl, and now, she, Jasey Porter, a 6, was actually meeting him! She was snapped out of her trance by his voice.

"So Lady Jasey, back in Allens I hear you're a..." he trailed off, trying to remember.

"Waitress." She supplied. He nodded, but wasn't sure what to say. Awkward silence for a moment.

"So what do you do in your free time?" He finally asked her.

"Um, I read and write, and I like playing soccer." She said.

"What's your favorite book?" He asked her, curious.

"I like mysteries, but I don't really have a favorite." She told him. More silence. Noah spoke again before it got too long.

"Well Lady Jasey, it was a pleasure meeting you, but I still have to meet most of the girls in this room." She smiled a little at that, stood, and went back to her seat.

* * *

><p>Lucinda's POV<p>

Lucinda surveyed the room and sighed. She watched the girl-Janice or something-a _six_-go back to her seat. She rolled her eyes, not believing it. Then she heard her name. She instantly straightened her dress-not that there was much fabric there to straighten-and stood up flawlessly in her 6-inch heels. Her dress was black-red was too obvious, and extremely revealing. It had a thigh slit, low neckline, and very little back. It did manage to pass as a dress though. She was wearing a diamond necklace to top the outfit off.

She flipped her long hair out of her makeup coated face as she walked over to the prince. She curtsied, making sure that it showed her very thin thigh. Then she sat down, leaning forwards slightly, though in the dress, it was enough to show a good deal.

"So Lady Lucinda, I've been told that you're an actress and model?" He partially asked, partially questioned her. She smiled.

"Oh yes. I do some modeling, and a good deal of acting. Have you seen my films?" She asked, smiling.

"No, but I'm sure they're quite good." He said.

There was silence for a moment. To fill it, Lucinda leaned forwards a bit more, creating more silence. After a few moments where he struggled not to blush, he spoke again.

"Well Lady Lucinda, I still need to meet most of the girls in this room." She nodded and stood up. Even if it wasn't working now, it would start to.

* * *

><p>Phoebe's POV<p>

Phobe watched Lucinda walk back to her seat. Then she heard her name get called. She stood, smoothing out her green dress and admiring its gold accents. She smiled a bit, and walked over to where the Prince was. She curtsied as she'd seen many of the other girls do, and then sat down on the couch.

"So Lady Phoebe, what do you do back in Bankston?" He asked her.

"I sing." She replied quietly. He nodded.

"Do you like it?" He asked.

She nodded.

Silence for a bit.

"Do you like singing?" He asked her. Another nod. More silence.

"Well Lady Phoebe, it was great meeting you, but I still have to meet a bunch of other girls." She walked back to her seat. She would be fine. He seemed nice-better than her family anyways.

* * *

><p>Marie's POV<p>

Marie smoothed her coral lace dress as she watched Phoebe walk back to her seat, and brushed the tendrils from her high bun out of her face. She bumped one of her sapphire earrings, and stopped its swinging. She, along with many other girls, had figured out it was going by alphabetical order in order of province, which meant that she was next. A few moment later, she heard her name called. As the other girls before her had done, she walked up, curtsied, and sat down on the couch.

"So Lady Marie, I hear that you're a musician." He said. Not only had he heard, but he'd listened to some of her music before. She nodded. She was somewhat reserved around him-ever since Jackson she'd been guarded about exposing herself to people, and this was someone she'd just met. Not to mention the Prince.

"Yeah, I play violin and piano, and I sing." She said. Noah didn't have to say his mom also did those instruments-it was common knowledge.

"Cool." Silence for a moment.

"So what do you like to do in your free time?" He asked her.

"When I can, I like to play golf." She said. She saw the flash across his face he tried to hide. "My family is very wealthy for fives." She explained. He nodded. They sat in some more silence.

"Well Lady Marie, it was lovely meeting you, but I still have to meet a lot of girls." He said. She nodded and rose, walking back to her seat.

* * *

><p>Jessamine's POV<p>

Jessamine tapped her foot impatiently, which was hard in heels. She saw the girl who was talking to Noah, whose name she was pretty sure was Marie stand up, and knew she was next. She took a breath, ran her hands over the silk of her sleeveless maroon silk dress, and waited for her name to be called. A moment later she heard it, and stood. She smiled slightly as she walked over. She was already tall, standing at 5'10 with no shoes, but even short heels made her very tall. She walked over to the couch, curtsied, and sat down.

"So Lady Jessamine, I hear that you farm in Bonita." He said.

"Yeah."

"What do you like to do in your free time?" He asked her.

"I like spooking people in the cornfield, and playing flute and guitar." She replied, smiling a little. He smiled when she said she liked spooking people.

"Well Lady Jessamine, it was a pleasure meeting you, but I need to meet a good deal of other girls." She smiled slightly, rose, and walked back to where she'd been sitting.

* * *

><p>Annalyse's POV<p>

Annalyse looked at her hands, which were absently smoothing the white tulle of the dress she was wearing. She watched as Jessamine stood, and fidgeted a bit with her dress. It was quite pretty. It was strapless and white, with some violet colored flowers going diagonally across it. Her hair was in a waterfall braid, which she tucked behind her ear, and held with a clip with light green jewels.

When her name was called, she stood confidently to the couch, though making sure she didn't trip in her heels. She would have gone with flats, but her maids had put her in heels anyways. But they'd given her small ones at least.

She curtsied to the Prince, and then sat down, smoothing her dress around her, and glad that though it was strapless, it wasn't obscenely revealing. She wasn't that girl.

"So Lady Annalyse, you're a musician?" He asked her. She nodded.

"Yeah, I sing, and I play instruments." She told him.

"What instruments?" He asked, curious.

"A lot. I can play trumpet, flute, viola, and piano pretty well, and I dabble in a bunch of others." She said, smiling. He nodded. Then there was silence.

"Well Lady Annalyse, it was lovely meeting you, but I have to meet many other girls. She nodded, stood, and went back to her seat. He was nice!

* * *

><p>Holly's POV<p>

Holly smoothed out her dress. It was sea foam green chiffon, with a v-neck and short sleeves. She liked its simplicity. She'd picked a simple gold bracelet and emerald earrings to go with it. She watched as Annalyse and the Prince chatted, and sighed. Her feet were starting to go numb. She wiggled them. She did not want to have it go completely numb, and then stand up in her heels. That would be embarrassing. She watched as Annalyse stood up, and redoubled her efforts to wake up her foot. Then she heard her name called. She walked up carefully, curtsied, and sat down, conscious the whole time of her blue heels.

"So Lady Holly, you're a doctor?" He asked he asked/stated.

"Just call me Holly. But yeah, I'm a doctor." She replied.

"What field of medicine interests you?" He asked, curious.

"I don't really know. Neuroscience, oncology, cardiology and surgery all seem pretty cool to me, but I'm not totally sure." She said. He nodded. She must be smart.

"What do you do in your free time?" He asked her.

"I dance." She said simply.

"Well La-Holly, it was a pleasure meeting you." He said. She smiled and rose, and went to her seat, still smiling.

* * *

><p>Francesca's POV<p>

Francesca tapped her foot as she smoothed her summery dress. It was mint green, and she was wearing it with one inch black heels, and some silver earrings and a mint green bracelet. She watched as Holly walked back to her seat, and sat up straighter, knowing she was next. A few seconds after Holly sat down, she heard her name called. She did as the girls before her had done-walk, curtsy, sit.

"So Lady Francesca, you're a hotel manager?" He asked her.

"In training." She replied. He nodded.

"How's that?" He asked her, curious. She shrugged.

"Okay, I guess. It's probably better than farming, or nothing." She said bluntly. Silence for a moment.

"So, what do you like to do in your free time?" He asked her, hoping to break the silence.

"Reading, writing, painting." She said.

"Well it was a pleasure to meet you Lady Francesca." He said. She knew this was her cue to get up, so she did.

* * *

><p>Maria's POV<p>

Maria wanted to rub her face against her dress. It was _so soft_. And not to mention red, her favorite color-with a ruby bracelet and ruby earrings. It was perfects, and the dress had a bit of twirl to it, and didn't look like cotton. It was great. She watched as Francesca talked with the Prince. They'd been talking longer than some. Finally, she stood up and walked to her chair. Then Maria's name was called. She stood and walked over, curtsied, and sat.

"So Lady Maria, you're training to be a pastor?" He asked her.

"Yeah." She said. He chuckled inwardly. Religion and politics-the two things you weren't supposed to discuss. He was effectively a politician, and she was deeply involved in religious things.

"So what do you like to do in your free time?" He asked her

"Um, I write, and I do calligraphy, and I like to play board games I guess." She told him. Silence.

"Well Lady Maria, a pleasure to meet you, but I have to meet just a few other people." He said. She smiled and stood, walking back to her seat.

* * *

><p>Imogen's POV<p>

Imogen looked down at her dress. Or rather, some green, and then her thighs. Because she was wearing a mini dress. She'd wanted to stand out, and she did indeed. _6 inch heels and a strapless mini dress will be different,_ she'd thought to herself earlier. She was correct. Combined with elaborate makeup, she was unforgettable. Though not necessarily in a good way. She watched as Maria walked back to her seat meakly. Then her name was called. She flipped her curled hair out of her face, stood, and navigated the maze of tables expertly in the heels. Finally she reached the Prince-or rather, the Prize. She curtsied, and then sat on the couch.

"So Lady Imogen, you act?" He asked her. She flipped her hair again.

"Yes. I've acted in a good deal of films. Have you seen my latest?" She asked.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Lina." She said, flashing her most dazzling smile.

"Nope. But I'm sure it's great." He said, trying to keep the sarcasm off his voice. She leaned forward a bit, an crossed moved her legs expertly so that even more of her very thin thigh was showing.

"Well lady Imogen, it was wonderful meeting you, but I have to meet some other girls." He said. She stood, and walked back to her seat smiling. Not her dazzling one though. The one similar to a bird of prey.

* * *

><p>Summer's POV<p>

Summer felt bad for Prince Noah. Imogen was the third girl to do this to him. He was fighting against blushing pretty valiantly watched as she stood up, and smoothed out her dark one-shouldered dress, which she loved. It was very simple-there was some crinkling, and a band of silver flower-y things around the middle, and she was wearing some slightly dangly sapphire earrings to go with it. Her hair was up in a simple french twist. She watched Imogen walk back to her seat, and heard her name called. She stood carefully in her heels, and, as everyone else who had gone had done, curtsied and sat down.

"So Lady Summer, you swim?" He asked her.

"Please just call me Summer. And yes, I swim." She said.

"Alright Summer. What do you like to do in your free time?"He asked her, curious.

"Well, I guess I like to make cookies, and I kinda play cello and draw and do some gymnastics. And I like playing with my dog." She told him.

"What type of dog do you have?" He asked her, he himself a dog lover.

"A black lab and a corgi." She replied, smiling.

"Aww. What're their names?" He said, smiling at the thought of two adorable dogs.

"The lab's name is Haley and the corgi's name is Bandit." She told him.

"Well Lady Summer, I enjoyed meeting you, but I have to meet just a couple other girls." He said. She smiled at his sarcasm, and went back to her seat.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay then! Long chapter. So there it is. I hoped you liked it.<strong>

**HestiaAbnegation11-Thanks! Too bad you can't ski in the Midwest-but at least there's lots of hockey teams. And girl's hockey teams. With people on them.**

**DolphinSplash12-More will come, but here's some.**

**Alia Sharma-Thanks**

**Fangirling is Life-Thanks! But that's too bad:(**

**HyperFLUFFY-Yeah**

**RQOTD-Did you celebrate super pi(e) day?**

**RQOTD2-How many digits of pi do you have memorized?  
>Yes I did, and here's what I have memorized.<strong>

**3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307**


	15. Chapter 15

**I'm sorry, I know! I haven't updated in forever!**

**But here's the next chapter. More characters. If your character isn't in this, they will be in the next one. Most of the rest of the girls are here, but there are a few I haven't done yet.**

**I have faces for Emmaline and Noah, so check those out if you want.**

**Thanks to **4Love4Love, Alia Sharma, **and **HestiaAbnegation11 **for being amazing reviewers!**

* * *

><p>Julie's POV<p>

Julie sighed as she watched Summer talk to the Prince. Out of all the girls who'd gone so far, she'd talked to him for the longest-and she was a six! She looked at her red form fitting dress made of some smooth material and composed herself. Twisted her gold bracelet on her wrist. Finally she looked up to see Summer _finally_ standing up. Then her name was called. She stood easily in her strappy black heels, and walked over to where Noah was sitting, carefully avoiding the tables and chairs. She curtsied-though it was difficult in the dress, because on the bottom it was a reasonable length-to just below her knee. The top wasn't quite as reasonable. It wasn't awful, but it was much lower than that of many of the girls.

"So Lady Julie, you act?" He asked her. She smiled at him.

"Oh yes. Have you seen my movies?" She asked, almost identically to some of the other actresses.

"What have you acted in?" He asked.

"Most recently _Finding Blue_ and _Lina_." She said.

"Didn't Lady Imogen also act in Lina?" He asked. She drew an annoyed breath

"Yes." She said sulkily. Imogen had had the role of the main character, and she hadn't. There was silence.

"Well Lady Julie, it was wonderful meeting you." He said. She took that as her cue to go, which she did, still sulking.

* * *

><p>Anastasia's POV<p>

Anastasia played with the pale-ish pink chiffon of her dress. Well, the skirt. The top was kind of a lace-y material, with 3/4 length sleeves. It wasn't too form fitting, which she liked. She watched as Julie stood, looking sulky. Then she heard her name. She walked up, curtsied, and sat, maybe a bit closer than some of the other girls. She sometimes pushed the boundaries of personal space when meeting someone.

"So Lady Anastasia, you're a youtube host?" He asked her.

"Yeah. And please call me Anna. Or Anastasia. Just not 'Lady' before it. It sounds so formal." She said. He smiled.

"What's your username?" He asked her.

"xGlitterific1756x." She replied.

"Wait, didn't you do the thing where you tried to make chocolate rhinos?" He asked her.

"Yeah. I asked my viewers for a challenge involving chocolate, and that one was the most creative. Me, a few of my friends and an art student all did them, and viewers rated mine. Mine looked like a lump of poop with legs and a horn." She said. They both started to crack up.

"What do you like to do in your free time?" He asked her.

"Sing, dance, hang out with my sister Gracie." She said.

"How old's your sister?" He asked her.

"Twelve." His smile shrank a bit. Emmaline was twelve too, though it wasn't super common knowledge that she was as sick as she was.

"Well Anastasia, it was wonderful meeting you, but I need to meet some other girls." He said. She smiled and stood, walking back to her seat.

* * *

><p>Melanie's POV<p>

Melanie sighed. This was stupid. She'd been sitting in the chair for a good deal of time while other girls went up to talk to him. She wasn't sitting with them because they didn't want to because of her reserved, icy, hostile behavior. She sighed and smoothed her blue-green dress. She had to be nice. She needed to not be eliminated. Her family needed the money. She watched as Anastasia walked back to her seat, and put on a small shy smile. Her name was called, and she walked up, curtsied, and sat.

"So Lady Melanie, what do you do in Hansport?" He asked her.

"I'm a maid." She replied sweetly.

"What do you enjoy doing in your free time?"

"I don't get much, but I like to read when I can." She said. _I don't get any, idiot. I work around the clock, _she thought to herself. But she knew better than to say that.

"What books do you like?" He asked.

"Harry Potter." She said.

"Well Lady Melanie, it was a pleasure meeting you, but I need to talk to some other girls." He said. He smiled, and once her back was turned let it drop. It wasn't too bad. She supposed it wouldn't be horrible.

* * *

><p>Riley's POV<p>

Riley smoothed out the dark blue tulle, admiring its look over the silk. It was a dark blue sleeveless dress, with dark blue silk overlaid with a layer of dark blue tulle, with a narrow band of silver that was kind of like laurel going around the middle, paired with silver heels, a silver bracelet, and silver-and-diamond earrings. She did like silver just a _little _bit.

She watched as Melanie walked back to her seat, the smile dropping right off her face as she turned away. When her name was called, she walked up confidently as she would on a diplomatic mission, curtsied, and sat. Then she extended her right hand for a handshake. Noah looked at it, and took it.

"Hi, I'm Riley." She said. Noah looked surprised.

"Hi, I'm Noah." He said, still looking surprised. She cocked her head questioningly at him.

"Sorry, it's just that none of the other girls have introduced themselves to me." He said. Riley smiled.

"So Riley, you're a diplomat?" He asked her.

"In training."

"Where'd you go last?" He asked, curious.

"Germany." She said. He nodded.

"What do you do in your free time?" He asked her.

"Melted crayon artwork, some running. Listening to music. You?" She asked, surprising him again.

"I ride, I do some photography and swimming, and some archery." He said. There was silence for a few seconds, though it wasn't awkward.

"Well Lady Riley, it was a pleasure to meet you, but I need to meet a good deal of the other girls." He told her. She smiled and rose, and walked back to her seat.

* * *

><p>Anevyn's POV<p>

Anevyn sighed as she smoothed her midnight violet tulle dress. Finally, she heard her name called. She stood up, grateful for a change from sitting. She stood up and walked over to the Prince, curtsied, and sat down.

"So Lady Anevyn-"

"It's Anevyn. You're saying it wrong. It's An-u-vin, not An-vin." She said, rolling her eyes.

"So, Lady Anevyn," He said, accenting the part in the middle, "What do you do in Hudson?" He saked.

"I don't do anything."

"What are your hobbies?" He asked her.

"I play cello." She said.

"Well Lady Anevyn, it was a pleasure meeting you, but I have to meet the other girls." He said. She stood up and went back to her seat.

* * *

><p>Ellee's POV<p>

Ellee shyly smoothed her light blue flowy dress as Anevyn walked back to her seat. Then her name was called. She did the same thing as the girls before her-walk, curtsy, sit.

"So Lady Ellee, what do you do in Kent?" He asked her.

"I'm doing some training to go into education." She said, barely loud enough for Noah to hear if he strained his ears.

"What do you do in your free time?" He asked her.

"I listen to music and shop." She said, again barely loud enough to be heard.

"Well Lady Ellee, it was wonderful meeting you, but I need to talk to some of the other girls." He said. She stood and walked back to her seat, not wanting to monopolize upon his time.

* * *

><p>Danisha's POV<p>

Danisha sat in her chair, waiting, watching how the silver on her icy blue and silver dress caught the light. Finally, her name was called after Ellee took her seat. She walked up, curtsied, and sat.

"So Lady Danisha, what do you do in Labrador?" He asked her.

"I sing, and I also dance." She replied, thankfully loud enough for him to actually hear.

"What type of dance?" He asked.

"Ballet, mostly." She said.

"What do you do when you're not doing that?" He questioned.

"I hunt, I do some archery and sword fighting, and I play with my three dogs." She said, smiling.

"What types of dogs?" He asked.

"Mitzie's a beagle, Joey's a lab, and Beau's a German Shepard." She told him. He smiled.

"Well Lady Danisha, it was lovely meeting you, but I have to meet some of the other girls here." He said. She smiled and went back to her seat, hoping she would stay.

* * *

><p>Hannah's POV<p>

Hannah shyly smoothed her veridigris green lace dress. It was very simple-sleeves that just went over her shoulders, and it went to her knees, and was slightly figure-hugging, but not very along with a charm bracelet and a touch of makeup.

She heard her name and looked up, having not seen Danisha walk back to her seat. She stood up carefully in her heels and walked over to the prince. She curtsied, careful not to break her ankle in the heels, and sat down next to the Prince.

"So Lady Hannah, you're a cook?" He asked her.

"Yes." She said quietly, though loud enough he didn't have to strain his ears too much.

"What do you like to do in your free time?" He asked her.

"I like listening to birds sing, climbing trees, and spending time with my sister Harper." She said.

"How many siblings do you have?" He asked her.

"There's Harper, she's 8, there's Hailey, she's 12, there's my twin brother, Hank, and my older sister, Hazel, who's 27." She said.

"Well Lady Hannah, it was a pleasure meeting you, but I have to meet some of the other girls." He said. She smiled and went back to her seat.

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><p>Lilly's POV<p>

Lilly ran her hand over the smooth dark green silk of her dress. She loved its smooth feel. She watched as Hannah walk back to her seat, and knew she was next. She put a hand up to push a strand of her flaming red hair out of her face. Then her name was called. She stood up somewhat cautiously in her green heels, and walked over to the Prince. She curtsied, and sat beside him.

"So Lady Lilly, I take it you're a shopkeeper?" He asked her.

"Yeah. We sell some nice soaps and jewlery and other cool stuff." She said.

"Who makes the jewlery?" He asked her.

"I'm learning how to make some of it, but I don't really know." She said to him, flipping her hair out of her face again. There was silence for several moments, seeming to grow with the soft sound of the other girls quiet chatter.

"Well Lady Lilly, it was lovely meeting you, but I need to meet some of the other girls." He said. She smiled and walked back to her seat, certain that he had loved meeting her.

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><p>Alexis's POV<p>

Alexis looked down at her dress again, admiring the shade of purple that the material was, with some bits of silver across the skirt. It was simple, but it was nice and bright-it definitely wasn't a really dark purple. She twisted her amethyst bracelet as she watched Lilly walk back to her seat, flipping her red hair. Then it was her turn. She stood up, walked over, curtsied, and sat down.

"So Lady Alexis, what do you do in Midston?" He asked her.

"I take basically any job I can get." She said honestly.

"What do you do in your free time?" He asked her.

"I read. And I bake some." She said.

"Well Lady Alexis, it was wonderful meeting you, but I have to meet several other girls." He said. She nodded, and went back to her seat.

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><p>Anaya's POV<p>

Anaya watched as Alexis went back to her seat. She smoothed out her strapless pastel blue silky dress, and waited. When her name was called, she went up to the Prince, curtised to him, and sat down.

"So Lady Anaya, what do you do in Ottaro?" He asked her.

"I'm training to become a doctor now I guess-I was training to be a nurse, but with this I can be a doctor." She said. He nodded. There was silence for a moment, which Noah then filled. She straightened out her glasses.

"So what do you do in your free time?" He asked her.

"I guess I like to sing, and eat food, and cook, and sing and dance and read." She said. There was a bit more silence, as neither of them said anything.

"Well Lady Anaya, it was lovely to meet you, but I have to meet some of the other girls here." He told her. She smiled, stood up, and went back to her seat.

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><p>Elodie's POV<p>

Elodie stared around the room, fidgeting with the skirt of her dress. Already she was regretting the decision to wear a corseted dress, lightly so as it was. She sighed a little, and smoothed out the white and blue tulle skirt. Finally she heard her name called. She stood up, took a deep breath (mostly because of the corset,) and went over to the Prince, who she curtised to, and then sat beside him.

"So Lady Elodie, you're an astronomer in Paloma?" He asked her.

"Yeah. It's pretty cool." She said.

"What do you like doing in your free time?" He questioned.

"I like reading, and just stargazing for fun, and playing with my little brother." She said, smiling slightly. Her hands fidgeted in her lap a little.

"How old is your brother?" He asked her.

"He's six." She said.

"Well Lady Elodie, it was a pleasure to meet you, but I have to meet some other girls." He said. She stood somewhat absently, and walked back to her seat.

* * *

><p>Andromeda's POV<p>

Andromeda looked at her gray silk dress and sighed. She watched as Elodie conversed with the Prince. She's been sitting here for such a long time. When would it be _her_ turn?

Finally Elodie stood up and walked back to her seat, and her name was called. She stood up somewhat clumsily in the small silvery-gold heels, and walked over to where the Prince was sitting somewhat cautiously. She curtsied to him, and then sat beside him.

"So Lady Andromeda, what do you do back in Panama?" He asked her.

"I'm an assistant chef at a restaurant." She said.

"What do you like to do in your free time?"

"I like to bake."_And draw,_ she added in her mind. There was silence, where she flipped her black hair with caramel ombre over her shoulder.

"Well Lady Andomeda, it was a pleasure meeting you, but I need to meet some of the other girls." he said. She got up and went back to her seat, taking another glance at him. This was going to happen.

* * *

><p>Sally's POV<p>

Sally looked down at her dress as she waited. The top was a darker royal blue and sleeveless, with thin straps, and the skirt was white with blue flowery patterns towards the bottom of the skirt. She pushed her hair out of her face, unaccustomed to its feel hanging in her face, used to it being up in a braid or bun. She tapped her foot a little as she waited.

She watched Andromeda walk back to her seat, and when her name was called, stood up and walked over to the prince, who she curtsied to and sat beside. She was grateful for her heels, which made her a bit taller and not seem quite so small compared to some of the monstrously tall girls.

"So Lady Sally, you're a gymnast?" He asked her.

"Yeah." She said.

"What do you like to do in your free time?" He asked.

"Um, I don't know. I spend a lot of my time in the gym, and then I hang out with my family and play flute." She said.

"Well Lady Sally, it was wonderful meeting you, but I have to meet some of the other girls." He said to her. She rose, and walked back to the seat where she'd been sitting.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay! Lots of characters! I'm sorry if your character's essence isn't well summed up, but there's a lot of girls.<strong>

**HestiaAbnegation11-That's a lot of digits!**

**Alia Sharma-Thanks! Manvi will be in the next chapter**

**4Love4Love-That's a lot of digits! Here's his meeting with Ana, and the rest of the girls will come soon-ish.**

**RQOTD-What's you favorite type of cookie, or if you _Can't Decide _then your top three?**

**Mine is the Can't Decide from Hello Robin-Half of their amazing chocolate chip cookie, half chocolate peppermint. And usually I don't like peppermint, but it's _AMAZING_.**


	16. Chapter 16

**IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!**

**My PM is glitching out, and I can't find the info for Bethany Trew or Cressida Wilde! If the people who submitted them send me their info later, I can give them more, but as of now, it's not really going to work. I'm REALLY sorry!**

**Sorry about not updating so long, I was on Spring break in Kauai.**

**I forgot to thank you guys last time, but thanks to **4Love4Love, Alia Sharma, **and **HestiaAbnegation11** for being great reviewers!**

* * *

><p>Bethany&amp;Cressida-information missing from my PM.<p>

* * *

><p>Silva's POV<p>

Silva looked down at her blue and silver dress, still slightly surprised at its difference from her usual denim. Her hair was in a simple yet elegant bun, and she had a simple silver bracelet,and not too much makeup on her. She waited as Cressida walked back to her seat, and finally heard her name called. She stood up, mindful of her heels, which she so rarely wore, in favor of her Converse high tops.

When she reached the Prince, she curtsied to him, and then sat.

"So Lady Silva, what do you do in Sumner?" He asked her.

"I'm a horse exerciser and trainer." She said, somewhat shyly.

"What do you do for that?" He asked, genuinely not knowing.

"I pretty much just ride the horses." She said, smiling a little bit.

"You like horses, then, I assume?" He said, smiling a little.

"Animals in general. I have two dogs and an Arabian Stallion, so that's probably a good thing." She said.

"Well Lady Silva, it was a pleasure to meet you, but I need to meet the last couple girls." He said. She nodded, standing cautiously in her heels and walking back to her seat.

* * *

><p>Grace's POV<p>

Grace played with her slightly dangly silver, diamond, and blue topaz earrings. They really were pretty simple, but sounded all fancy. The left side of her hair was in a waterfall braid, the other simply allowed to be loose. She was still in awe at the opulence of everything in the palace-including the clothes. She was wearing a floaty yellow chiffon dress, with short, fluttery sleeves that were barely there. She'd managed to talk her maids into minimal makeup-a tiny bit of eyeliner to accentuate her blue eyes, along with some other stuff, and a pretty low pair of gold somewhat strappy heels that she was completely in confident in her ability to walk in. She watched as Silva walked to her seat, and her own name was called. She stood, walked over to Noah, curtsied, and sat beside him.

"So Lady Grace, what do you do in Tammins?" He asked her.

"First, don't call me Lady Grace. Just call me Grace. And I'm a seamstress, I guess." She said. He smiled a bit

"What do you do in your free time?" He asked her.

"I do ballet, and I play cello and really like to draw and read and write, and I used to do archery, and I sorta do gymnastics. And I volunteer at the Animal shelter when I can." She said.

"Wow, that's a lot of stuff." He said. She smiled a bit and nodded. "Wait, there's an animal shelter in Tammins?" He asked, incredulous.

"Oh yeah. Is there not one in Angeles?" Grace asked him, stunned.

"Nope, we don't have one here. I don't think I've heard of one here before. What type of animals do you like best?" He asked her.

"I love corgis, and some of the cats are super sweet, and there's a couple of bunnies." She said. He smiled.

"What's your favorite book?" He asked her. She laughed a bit.

"Too many. Can't pick one." She said, smiling a little.

"Well Grace, it was lovely meeting you, but I need to finish meeting the last few girls." He told her. She nodded, stood, and went back to her seat, wary of the death traps on her feet.

* * *

><p>Aria's POV<p>

Aria looked as one of the sparkles on her sparkly red chiffon dress caught the light. She pushed a strand of her straightened dyed blonde hair and pushed it back behind her ear, as she fingered one of the rubies on her necklace. Her makeup was fairly light, with a bit of a cat-eye. She watched as Grace finally stood up, and after a few moments, her name was called. She stood with relative ease in her red high heels as she walked over to the Prince, curtsied to him, and sat.

"So Lady Aria, what do you do in Waverly?" He asked her. He knew, like he did for all of the girls, what she did, but Aria the most so.

"I'm involved in politics." She said, smiling. Her family was among those who wanted things to go back to how they'd been during King Clarkson's rule, though she was outspoken of her support for Maxon and America's rule. Noah's smile stayed, unforced.

"What do you do in your free time?" He asked.

"I write." She said.

"Well Lady Aria, it was a pleasure to meet you, but I have to meet a few of the other girls." He said. She nodded, stood, and went back to her seat.

* * *

><p>Manvi's POV<p>

Manvi smoothed out her orange silk floral dress, which matched the color of the orange garnet earrings and necklace that she wore. Her makeup was pretty simple, and she had a pair of bronze heels on. She watched as Aria and Noah finished talking and she walked back to her seat, and then her own name was called. She walked up to the Prince somewhat shyly, curtsied, and then sat beside him.

"So Lady Manvi, you're a dancer?" He asked her.

"Yes." She replied, somewhat stiffly.

"And what do you like to do in your free time?" He asked her, curious.

"I really like to draw and read, and I sing a little" She said. He smiled.

"Well Lady Manvi, it was a pleasure to meet you, but I need to meet the last girl." He said. She smiled very slightly, stood, and went back to her seat.

* * *

><p>Anna's POV<p>

Anna smiled slightly. How could any of the girls beat her? She was doing exactly what Queen America had done. Her hair was dyed red, her dress was almost exactly like the one Queen America had worn on the first day of her Selection-blue floral-and she was wearing a necklace with a silver pendant, though with the slight personalization of a small silver leaf instead of a songbird. She had small stud earrings and simple makeup, and shoes like that Queen America had worn. Unfortunately, though, last night the gardens had been open to all the girls, and the Prince hadn't come out. So bummer there. She watched as Manvi walked back to her seat and stood, walking over to where the Prince was. She curtsied and sat.

"So Lady Anna, you model?" He asked her. _What would Queen America have done, _she asked herself.

"Oh yes. And just call me Anna please." She said, smiling slightly.

"Well Anna, what do you like to do in your free time?" He asked her.

"I sing, I play piano and violin, and I run sometimes and do some art." She said. She'd literally been training all her life for this, and had been doing the same things as Queen America had for a very long time.

"Well Anna, it was lovely to meet you, but I need to have a bit of time now." He said. She nodded and stood, walking back to her seat. She was dissapointed it hadn't gone longer, but she knew she would get him. How could she not?

* * *

><p><strong>Alright, so there's a chapter-sorry it took so long to update. I'm thinking next chapter will be a shorter one, Noah's POV, of the eliminations. So yeah.<strong>

**HestiaAbnegation-Oooh, double chocolate. Have you had double chocolate M&M? It's amazzzzzing. And no, I haven't seen it, but now I'm about to go watch it. No I just watched it-it's so funny!**

**Lorelai Sofia Petrova-Thanks! Peanut butter is delicious.**

**HyperFLUFFY-It is, right. Nationally televised pageant-how about we just let them dress like that. And thanks.**

**Meeeeeee-Cool!**

**RQOTD-White chocolate, Milk chocolate, or Dark chocolate?**

**Dark chocolate-65-about 87 percent, not too dark. Milk is fine, and nothing personal, but white isn't really chocolate, though I'm a little embarrassed to say that I do like Hershey's cookies n' cream.**

**How many girls do you think will be eliminated?**


	17. Chapter 17

**Okay, so here's this chapter!**

**I found Cressida's PM, but not Bethany's, so if whoever sent me Bethany's wants to resend it (should be in your outbox) then go ahead.**

**Thanks to **Alia Sharma, HestiaAbnegation11, **and** 4Love4Love** for being AMAZING reviewers! You guys are amazing!**

**Shoutout to **HestiaAbnegation11 **and **4Love4Love** for guessing how many girls would be eliminated! Neither was quite right, but their guess/what they felt like they should say was close.**

* * *

><p>Noah's POV<p>

Noah exhaled slightly. It was over. FINALLY. He'd just met all thirty five of the Selected girls, and wanted nothing more than to take a nap. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option. He had to figure out which ones to eliminate. The noise level in the room was rising slightly as the girls chatted. He scanned the room, trying to decide which girls to keep here and which to send home.

Finally, he'd decided on which girls to eliminate, but he wasn't sure how to tell them. He hadn't told them to stay behind when he'd talked with them, because he didn't know how the rest of the girls would be. Finally, he just decided that he would ask them to stay behind. He cleared his throat somewhat loudly, and the chatter of all the girls fell away.

"Um, Ladies, I would like to ask Lady Maria, Lady Phoebe, Lady Annalyse, Lady Anevyn, Lady Elee, Lady Alexis, Lady Cressida, Lady Anna, and Lady Melanie to stay here, and the rest of you to head on. The staff will show you where you're going." He said. The girls whose names he hadn't called stood, and the sound of heels on the floor rose into the spacious room as they slowly filed out, leaving only the girls whose names he had called. Welp, this was awkward. May as well get it over with.

"Ladies, I've called you here because I feel like I can't see myself having a future with you, and bearing that in mind, I don't want to have to keep you here, and instead be able to focus my energies on the other girls here." He told them. He saw as some of their smiles faded away, shocked that they were being eliminated so early.

"I think you're all wonderful people, but I just can't see you as my wife." He said. Some of them were glaring now, which he was perfectly accustomed to. There was nothing else left to say, so he exited, to go to the dining room. First elimination, check. He still had to decide on the first date though. Time for that later though. Before that, breakfast.

* * *

><p>Summer's POV<p>

Summer was pretty sure that she'd made it past the first elimination. The probability of him eliminating 26 girls and keeping just nine was extremely slim. Possible, but slim. Shame though. Neither Colette nor Lucinda, the biggest bitches of the competition, or so it appeared so far, were in the probably-eliminated group. The palace staff ushered them to a room that she recognized as being the one that they ate dinner in last night. Another sign.

She found her namecard-in between Anna-who wasn't there and Colette, across from Shaylienne, and sat. Once all the girls were seated, plates of food begin to be brought out-some with domes over them, placed in front of each girl, some baskets of pastries placed in the middle of the table. She recognized the strawberry tarts that were famous for Queen America loving, and other baskets with beautiful baked goods in different shades of gold. Once all the girls were served, the silver lids were pulled off of the plates, revealing pancakes, bacon, sausage, and hashbrowns. Summer decided that she had to try one of the strawberry tarts, **(A/N I am basing these off of the amazing Pierre Herme strawberry tarts that I love) **which was amazing. All around her, the noises of earlier chatter stopped, to be replaced with the silence of good food.

Then, the door to the room opened, revealing the royal family-Queen America, King Maxon, Princess Emmaline, and Prince Noah. Some of the girls stood and curtsied, to which Queen America told them to sit back down, and that it was okay. They took their place at a smaller table with four chairs at it, and started chattering quietly, and laughing.

The noise level in the room slowly rose as girls ate their fill of the succulent food, and some of the girls began to look puzzled at the empty chairs of the girls who still hadn't returned. Finally, Noah stood, after recovering from inhaling waffle as Emmaline mimed something.

"Ladies, for those of you who don't know, you all will be staying here." He said, then sitting back down. Girls started smiling at each other. They were staying!

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><p><strong>Alright, so there's that chapter! Hope you guys like it, sorry about the AN in the middle. (Pierre Herme makes REALLY good strawberry tarts.) Last year...Anyways, that's a long story**

**Alia Sharma-Thanks! I haven't had marble cake, but it sounds really good.**

**HestiaAbnegation11-Close, but not quite. I maintain that it is a chocolate by product, but I'm biased for dark, so...**

**4Love4Love-It's okay! Relax! Please! Thanks, Anna was fun to write. And your mom is a PASTRY CHEF! That would be AWESOME! I just kinda picked a few, because my grandmother bakes a lot, but there's so many good cookies. And yay! Dark chocolate. I've never had peppermint bark before, so I don't know if it's good.**

**RQOTD:Unicorn, Pegasus, Twonicorn, Pegacorn, or Twonapegacorn?**

**Twonapegacorn, obviously. What's better that a flying Twonicorn, answer me that? Barring a flying threenacorn...**


	18. Chapter 18

**Okay! So this chapter will be varying POVs after the first breakfast.**

**To all those who had characters eliminated-all the characters were really good, and I just had to pick some of the ones I couldn't find a way to fit in the story as well.**

**I'm having some of the main characters meet each other, so yeah.**

**Thanks to **HestiaAbnegation11, Alia Sharma, **and **4Love4Love **for being amazing reviewers:D**

* * *

><p>Riley's POV<p>

Riley filed out of the room with the other girls. She was stuffed. She wasn't a girl to pick at delicious food because she might gain weight. She ran, and had a good metabolism, plus it just seemed a pity with her. She followed behind the rest of the girls going to the Women's room, and could tell by the slowed pace of many that they'd eaten just as much as she had.

At breakfast, she'd been at a table right next to Lucinda. No way to help it, she supposed, but she was looking forward to being able to pick where she sat in the Women's Room. There she'd be able to get away from the god-awful girl.

As they filed into the Women's Room, Lucinda and Colette took a corner for themselves, which everyone else gave a fairly wide berth. There they were joined by Imogen, Bethany, and Julie. Everyone else kinda just mingled, sitting near someone else, because nobody really knew anyone else and Riley ended up near Summer and Marie. The chatter in the room slowly started to pick up. Riley turned to Summer.

"So what do you do?" She asked her. Summer looked at her, slightly startled.

"I'm a swimmer." She said, smiling. Now it was Riley's turn to be surprised. She would not have guessed this tiny girl was a swimmer.

"What do you do?" She asked Riley.

"I'm a diplomat in training." She said. The other girl smiled.

"I'm Summer, by the way." She said.

"I'm Riley." Said Riley, smiling.

"I love your hair. I wish I could do something like that with mine." Said Summer looking at Riley's mainly pink hair with some blues and purples.

"Thanks. Why can't you with yours?" Riley asked, curious.

"Well, swimming beats up my hair already, plus I'm blonde, so it takes forever for faded colors to fade completely. I dyed a tiny bit when I was younger, and just cut it off." She said, smiling ruefully, and laughing a bit. Riley smiled.

* * *

><p>Lucinda's POV<p>

Lucinda scanned the room, and rolled her eyes slightly. The girls who had come over and joined her and Colette were at least slightly less moronic than the rest of the girls. She knew who some of the girls were who weren't with her-Anastasia Montgomery, successful youtuber, Summer Lee, swimmer, Sally Woods, gymnast. And of course she knew who all the girls who she was with were-actresses and models. But the rest of the girls were nobodies! She was disgusted.

"Did you know some of the girls didn't want to wear makeup?" Julie said quietly in a voice full of scorn.

"Apparently they just want to look awful." Colette said, rolling her eyes.

"Or maybe we want to look like a real people instead of a testing strip for cosmetics." Said Anastasia, in a rare twist for her, making Grace, who was within earshot, laugh.

"Want some Aloe Vera?" Grace asked. Lucinda fumed.

"You're wearing makeup." She retorted to Grace. Grace widened her eyes in fake innocence.

"You mean the makeup I'm wearing after I asked my maids not to put any on me?" She asked. Lucinda swore internally. She couldn't think of a response to that, and even if she could have, Grace was already dissapearing into the group of girls with Anastasia. She was going to get Grace for that, and the plane. Grace had better watch her back.

* * *

><p>Noah's POV<p>

Noah chewed on the end of a pen, while Emmaline sighed dramatically, flopped in one of the chairs in her room.

"It's not that hard, Noah." She said to her brother, who was sitting at her desk, bored of watching her brother fret over this, and somewhat amused at the same time.

"Yes it is." He insisted stubbornly. He wasn't different from most siblings in that he wouldn't just concede his little sister was right. She sighed again.

"Actually, it is. You have a list of girls you like. So which one did you like best so far?" She asked him. Now it was his turn to sigh, because his sister was right. He pointed with his pen.

"See? Just as easy as I told you it would be." She said, smirking.

"Jerk." He said.

"Yeah yeah yeah, now bring me my leg brace and crutches so I can go tell mom and dad you've finally decided." He laughed, but got them for his sister. She put on the brace and adjusted the crutches, and was away, though not before stopping in the doorway.

"And start writing that note now, because you're probably going to take forever." She said.

"But-"

"I'll tell you all the ways it's wrong later." She yelled as she made her way down the hall, making the guard posted outside her door laugh. He sighed. He had s lot of work to do.

* * *

><p>Summer's POV<p>

Summer sat down. Her feet felt better sitting, but they still hurt. Even as she was a two, she usually didn't wear heels-usually it was athletic shoes or ballet flats, and her feet were feeling the difference. She could tell if she kept them on much longer that she would get a blister. _Time for a change, methinks,_ she thought to herself. She remembered her maids telling her if the heels were too bad they had some better shoes in her room. Time to take them up on that offer.

She made her way up to her room, managing not to get lost. In her room, she found her maids idly chatting. When she opened the door, they leapt up.

"Lady Summer, how can we help you?" Asked Natalie, her head maid.

"Um, my shoes were just rubbing a bit because I'm not used to them, and I was wondering if I could switch?" She asked hopefully.

"We don't have flats that will go with your dress..." Said Alicia, one of her other maids. Summer smiled. Almost as if she had anticipated this situation, she'd brought one of the only pairs of heels she owned-a low-ish pair of silver sandal heels. She went over to her bag in her bare feet, dug through it, and found them. She pulled them out, and held them so her maids could assess them. They all nodded.

"Looks good." Said Natalie. Summer slipped them on, and was off again.

* * *

><p>Grace's POV<p>

Grace looked at the wall full of pointe shoes, amazed. Her maids had told her about this place, and she was astounded. She'd brought a few pairs of her own, but they were nowhere near the quality of these. Sylvia had told them that dancers were allowed to use these, and that the palace pretty much had this just for the Selected girls, plus any visitors that might be in need of pointe shoes. She picked out a couple of pairs that were similar to her own, only of much higher quality, and new. Hers had been used much more than could be recommended, but she couldn't afford a ton. She grabbed the plastic bags with the shoes and went back to her room to drop them off.

She'd been told that there was a whole gym for the Selected, but they could only use it when Sylvia gave them permission. So far, she hadn't given it to them, though this was their first full day at the palace. Which, when she reached her room with only a small wrong turn that she corrected, was why she was so proud of herself. She opened the door to her room, her maids working on a dress for her. They all looked up at her.

"I just came to drop these here so that they're here." She said. Her maids looked at each other, and her head maid Jasmine stepped up.

"La-Mis-Grace, the Prince dropped off a note while you were gone." She said, smiling a little. She remembered not to call Grace Lady or Miss, as per her request, but it was ingrained in her, and would take some getting used to for her. Grace followed Jasmine's gaze to the table beside her bed where there was an envelope. She looked around, took the shoes out of their bag, and lined them up side-by-side at the edge of her bed.

"What should I do with the bags?" She asked. Raegan, one of her other maids took them from her, and looked at the letter. Grace smiled, and grabbed the letter off the table. She opened the envelope, which was addressed with her name. She took out the sheet of paper inside, and unfolded it.

_Grace-_

_I was wondering if you would like to accompany_

_me to the archery range tomorrow morning?_

_Yes, it would be a date._

_Send your reply back somehow._

_-Noah._

The part about it being a date and the word somehow were both written in what appeared to be a different hand. She looked at her maids for confirmation.

"Is he-"

"He's asking you on the first date!" Raegan squealed.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, so there's another chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed! So I'm going to start doing date chapters-probably a few per chapter, and not all the characters will get a POV, but some will. Some will be like 'so and so went on a date.' from another character's POV.<strong>

**HestiaAbnegation11-Unicorns are pretty cool, especially when they fart rainbows! I literally made a scratch project that was just unicorns farting rainbows once!**

**4Love4Love-Even if you don't get dessert all the time, it's still pretty cool! And so are pegasus/pegasi**

**Alia Sharma-Thanks! I'm in 7th**

**RQOTD:If you were stuck on a deserted island and could have only one thing, what would it be?**

**Three wishes, obviously. And I could obviously ask for more wishes.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Okay, so this will be the first date chapter, and the next several chapters will probably also be dates, and the first report will also be probably in one or two chapters.**

**Thanks to **Alia Sharma, 4Love4Love, **and **HestiaAbnegation11 **for being amazing reviewers! You guys are totally amazing!**

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><p>Grace's POV<p>

Grace looked at the clock in her room. Her maids were done fussing over her appearance, and were now just working on another dress in the corner.

They'd changed her out of the pale pink dress she'd worn to breakfast, and into a floaty one-shouldered aqua-blue chiffon dress with an uneven hemline, giving it a somewhat fairy-like appearance. She'd let her maids put a tiny bit of neutral lipstick on, and small aquamarine earrings, in exchange for being able to wear flats that matched the dress.

She saw that she still had he time until he arrived, and remembered the pointe shoes she'd lined up under her bed yesterday. Now seemed as good a time as any to try some of them on, she thought. She grabbed the pair on the far left, took off her flats, and exchanged them for pointe shoes, after grabbing some of the gel pads that worked perfectly for her to put in.

Once the shoes were in and secure, she stood up, flat footed. Nothing wrong there, so she rose up to pointe. Her maids had stopped their work to watch her. She had already sewed on the ribbons, and knew the shoe fit, so she decided to try it out a bit. She could feel that it was better than her ones she'd brought from home, and once she was done marveling, she tried it.

She started with some Bourree's, moving across the relatively big room as if she were floating. That felt fine (or at least as fine as pointe could), so she tried pirouettes, which also felt fine. She started to connect things, moving around the room, and then went back to Bourree's, which she loved, moving around the room seemingly effortlessly, when she heard a knock on her door. She looked at the clock-she still had had time, so she hadn't been worried.

"Shit." She muttered, running to the door while trying to undo the ribbons. All she succeeded in was almost falling over, and getting to the door. She opened the door to reveal Noah, who almost immediately started laughing at the apologizing girl who was alternating between apologizing, tripping, and swearing. Finally, she sat down, and undid the ribbons and took the shoes off, putting the flats back on.

"You dance?" He asked her, once she was not tripping around the room.

"Um, a little." She said as they walked out the door.

"It sounded like you were pretty good." He said. She cocked her head, unsure how he would know that.

"My sister dances, and it sounds like you were in pointe shoes." He said. She nodded.

"I'm not, like, amazing or anything, but yeah, I do pointe." She said. Silence for a minute.

"So where's the archery range?" Grace asked, changing the subject.

"It's on the grounds outside." He said. Then, jokingly "So that you can hide the bodies of people that you've shot." Grace laughed.

"Bring it. Bet you couldn't hit me anyways." She said, smiling.

"And here it is." He said, gesturing at an expansive range.

"Wow." Grace said. Noah walked over to a shed with a lock on it, and put his finger to a scanner. The shed opened, revealing a shed full of bows and arrows, as well as some atlatls.

Noah grabbed a bow off of a rack for him, and then looked at Grace, trying to figure out what size she would be. When he turned around, she already had a perfectly sized bow strung.

"Do you want an arm guard?" He asked her.

"Arm guards are for wusses." She said, grabbing some arrows. She grabbed some arrows, and Noah followed her out of the shed, grabbing an arm guard on his way.

"You've shot before, then?" He asked her.

"No, that's just why I know how to string and size a bow, and what an arm guard is." She said sarcastically. He laughed.

"Well, I grabbed a scoresheet." He said.

"You're going down, you know that, right?" She said, smiling.

"I beg to differ, Lady Grace." He said in mock formality.

"How far away should we go from?" She asked.

"The 10 meter, maybe?" He said. She shrugged.

"Sure." They walked to the 10 meter together.

"So if you lose, what happens?" He asked.

"You dump a bucket of cold water on me." She said.

"And if I lose?" He asked.

"I dump a bucket of cold water on you." She said, smiling. He nodded.

"Seems fair enough." He said.

When they got to the ten meter, they walked apart a bit so that they could have their own separate targets. They took their arrows, and started firing.

When her first arrow landed as only a 5, Grace was reminded of how long it had been since she'd shot. Once all her arrows were fired though, her target looked pretty good. She had her 5, two eights, a nine, and two tens. She looked over at Noah's target. He had Two sevens, three eights, and a nine. And only four rounds to make up the difference. Noah sighed, looking at Grace's target, and marked it on the score sheet. They went to retrieve their arrows.

"You're really good." He said to her. She blushed a bit.

"Thanks. I used to do some archery." She replied.

"What do you mean by some?" He asked.

"Two hours a week for a few years." She said. He nodded. He had a feeling that he was going to be very wet by the end of this date. He nodded.

They shot off their next rounds. For the most part, their scores got better, but Grace's were incredible. In the fifth round, she shot all tens except a nine that was almost a ten. Noah grinned ruefully when he saw the scores. He was so very clearly going to get a bucket of water dumped on him.

They put their bows away, and the arrows, and Noah's arm guard. Noah knew that they could get a bucket just from the stables, which were quite nearby, and water.

"Come on. We need a bucket and some water." He said to Grace. She laughed and smiled, following him. They walked to the stables, where Grace quickly found a bucket.

"Where's something to fill this with water?" She asked. He pointed at the tap behind her, and she laughed.

"I knew that was there." She said, laughing at missing it though it was right there. Once the bucket was full of water, she walked over to Noah, lifted it up, and turned it upside down. He gasped at the icy cold water, and she laughed. He was completely soaked.

"Well shoot. Now I know to never challenge you to archery where a bucket of water is the loser's treat." He said to her, laughing. They started to walk back to the palace, Noah soaked, Grace not.

"Well Grace, thanks for doing some archery with me." He said.

"No thank you for dumping a bucket of water on you though?" She said in mock offense.

"Nope."

"I'm offended." She said, her sarcasm clear. He shook his head, water flying everywhere, and she ran off.

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><p><strong>Okay, so there's that chapter! I hope you guys liked it.<strong>

**Alia Sharma-Thanks!**

**Dolphinsplash12-Thanks! That's all pretty good stuff too, but I'm gonna stick with my wishes...**

**4Love4Love-Her and Anna aren't like super close right now because they just met, but they're probably going to become pretty good friends. And there'll probably be more of the girls interacting later on. And I didn't think there was anyone in 7th either! And a plane is good, but I like my wishes still...**

**RQOTD-What Season do you like best?**

**I like all of them, except Winter I really only like over the breaks from school, the holidays, and the occasional snow (rare in the Pacific NW) and skiing.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Okay, so I'm going to mix in some interactions of the girls with dates.**

**Also, I was wondering, do any of you guys want me to do Emmaline's POV?**

**Thanks to **Alia Sharma, HestiaAbnegation11, Dolphinsplash12, **and **4Love4Love **for being totally amazing reviewers!**

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><p>Grace's POV<p>

Grace opened the door to the women's room to see most of the girls where they were earlier, getting to know most of the other girls better. When she opened the door, everyone looked up. Anastasia walked over.

"Where were you?" She asked Grace. Grace looked around.

"I was on a date." She admitted quietly. Anastasia squealed.

"That's great! What did you do?" She exclaimed. Some of the girls were looking at her again, curious.

"We went to the archery range and shot a few rounds." Grace said, omitting the part about dumping the water with many of the girls clearly listening to what she was saying.

"What did you talk about?" Lilly asked. Grace was saved from answering when Silvia came in.

"Ladies, for those of you who'd like to use the gym for the Selected, you may do so now." She said. Grace stood up, eager not to have to answer questions about the date.

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><p>Riley's POV<p>

Riley watched as Grace exited, saved from the questioning girls, along with Sally and Summer, who from talking to, Riley knew was a swimmer. Riley looked at all the girls, and watched as Imogen got up as well. Riley went to one of the chairs in a corner, and then stood back up. She hadn't gone running since her last diplomatic mission, and even though it was on a treadmill, she still loved running. She stood up, trailing behind the other girls.

She stopped by her room, grabbing shorts and a running shirt, and then headed down to where they'd been shown the gym was with her clothes.

When she got to it, she opened the door, stepped inside, and was immediately amazed. There was a large collection of various machines, as well as courts for different sports, a pool, a dance studio, and gymnastics equipment. There was a sign pointing to the changing rooms, which Riley followed.

The changing rooms were almost equally impressive. There were shower cubicles and changing cubicles, and couches for some reason, and hair dryers and bathrooms. She changed quickly, and then headed back out to the machines, where she found Imogen on a treadmill. She herself got one, and started running, putting in earbuds, and started running, the pounding of her feet against the track, and the music in her ears.

She ran, the fatigue starting to slowly starting to creep up her legs. She looked at the display on the treadmill and saw she'd been running for about 25 minutes. Not amazing, but enough. She turned it down so that she was walking, and walked for a few minutes before turning it off. She went back to the changing rooms, looking at the showers. She saw the large array of products, and decided to take a shower. She smelled, and a shower couldn't hurt.

After showering, she blow-dryed her hair, and re-applied makeup. Then she headed back to the women's room, where she saw most of the girls except those still in the gym. She walked into the crowd of girls, wanting to get to know some better.

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><p>Summer's POV<p>

Summer walked up to her room with Grace, one of the other girls who'd left to go to the gym. Her maids gave her a practice suit, and she grabbed one of her favorite swim caps-a purple, blue, and black splatter patterned one on white. She left her room with them to run into Grace, who was also leaving her room.

"I'm Summer." She said as they walked alongside each other.

"I'm Grace." Said Grace.

"What do you do?" She asked, gesturing at what Grace was carrying.

"Um, I do some dance and gymnastics. You?" She said.

"I swim." Summer said. Grace nodded. They arrived at the door to the gym, and they went in to the changing rooms. Summer changed into her suit, and then went out to the pool. She dived in, and started swimming, with a 400 yard freestyle warm-up, followed by a 300-yard backstroke, 200-yard butterfly, 400-yard breaststroke, and 200-yard kick. Once that was done, she started doing her 3200 meter work out.

Once she'd finished that, she got out of the pool and retrieved the sports top and shorts her maids had also given her. Feeling somewhat lazy, she simply put them on over her swimsuit, and hopped on the treadmill among the exercise machines, where she spotted Imogen working on the elliptical.

Once she'd done a twenty-minute run, she went over to the weights. She lifted them for a little, and, looking at the clock, she realized her workout was up. She put the weights back, and went back to the changing room.

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><p>Grace's POV<p>

Grace looked in awe at the dance studio. She hadn't seen one for years at this point. Earlier, she'd looked at the gymnastics equipment, and been thoroughly impressed, but decided to do some dance first. The speakers were of extremely high quality, and there were mirrors on three sides of the room, and windows on the fourth. Her maids had given her a simple dark blue cap sleeved leotard, as well as some sports capri leggings. She looked around the room, and sat down in the middle of the floor unceremoniously, and put her shoes on, taking care to tape her toes first.

Once her shoes were on, she danced for a while. The mirrors were incredibly helpful, helping her correct things she hadn't been able to see for years. Finally, she sat back down, taking her shoes off. She looked longingly at the gymnastics equipment, but felt the pain in her feet, and skipped it.

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><p>Anastasia's POV<p>

Anastasia headed back up to her room. She'd talked with most of the girls, and most of them seemed pretty nice. She was thinking of maybe grabbing something like a book down to the women's room, because it could get a little boring. She opened the door to her room, and her maids looked up. Her head maid, Ivory, stood up, holding something out to Anastasia.

"Lady-I mean Anastasia, another maid brought this by for you." She said. It appeared to be an envelope. Anna took it from Ivory, and opened it, sitting on the ground so that her maids could read over her shoulder if they wanted to. They all looked over her shoulder, wanting to know what was inside. Anna pulled out the sheet of paper and unfolded the tri-fold.

_Lady Anastasia-_

_I was wondering whether you would_

_like to go on a date with me to the movie_

_theater after dinner?_

_-Noah_

Her maids squealed.

"Oh that's great!" squealed Lacey.

"We have a perfect dress for that." Said Lucy, usually neutral on most things, excited. Ivory ran to the closet, and pulled out a pale pink dress from her closet, with some silver beading.

"It's beautiful." She said. Her maids smiled.

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><p><strong>Okay, so there's that chapter. I know it's not some of my best work, so sorry about that. But at least there's a chapter? I dunno.<strong>

**Alia Sharma-Thanks!**

**Dolphinsplash12-Thanks! Archery is fun, and so is fall. Although it rains a LOT here in the fall...**

**HestiaAbnegation11-Fall is pretty but it's really rainy here in the fall**

**4Love4Love-Thanks! And yes, 7th grade girl. And I'm going to mix in some interactions w/the dates.**

**RQOTD-What stereotype (not plural, try to decide) do you hate most?**

**That girls aren't as smart as guys and are weak.**

**I mean, seriously. Where did that come from? I hate this stereotype. It's completely inaccurate. I'm probably smarter AND tougher than most of my male classmates. **


	21. Chapter 21

**Alright, so here's the next chapter!**

**I want to tell you guys well in advance, I will be leaving in mid May on a school backpacking trip lasting approximately 2.5 weeks, and then I might update, and then I'm leaving again for about another 2.5 weeks.**

**PLEASE READ THE BELOW**

**Also, I've gotten a few mad PMs, so I'm going to explain this now. I might not give all the characters POVs. Some, yes, but not all, it will mostly be the main characters. If you're getting mad at me, that will serve you to simply have me get mad and A)Possibly eliminate your character and/or B)Just not give them a POV. Honestly, the best thing you can do to get them a POV is to review.**

**Also, I have enough main characters to juggle that Francesca is going to be a somewhat more featured supporting character.**

**Thanks to **Dolphinsplash12, Alia Sharma, HestiaAbnegation11, **and **4Love4Love **for being great reviewers!**

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><p>Anastasia's POV<p>

Anastasia smoothed out the pale pink and silver dress as she walked to answer her door. After dinner, her maids had changed her out of her dinner gown and into this dress. They'd put her hair into a French braid, and switched her shoes, though left her makeup intact. She opened the door, revealing Noah standing behind it.

"Hi." She said somewhat awkwardly.

"Hi." He said. She stepped out into the hallway, closing her door behind her.

"So what does the palace have to watch movies?" She asked, trying to break the awkward silence. Noah smiled.

"A really big movie theater with nicer, cleaner seats." He said. She laughed as they walked down the stairs, she conscious of her heels, not wanting to trip on them.

"Okay then." She said, nodding her head.

"What type of movies do you like to watch?" He asked her.

"Pretty much everything except documentaries and bad ones. You?" She said, eliciting a laugh from him.

"Pretty much the same." He opened a door, gesturing for her to go in first. She did, and was amazed. It was a huge movie theater, with a huge screen, nice chairs, a vast collection of movies, and volume control. Both of them walked over to the collection of movies.

"Wait, you have City of Ember?" She asked him.

"I guess so." He said. She laughed again.

"I heard it was terrible though." She said, more to herself.

"We could hate-watch it." He suggested. She smiled and nodded.

"Alright. I can't believe I'm doing this, but sure."

"Why can't you believe it?" He asked her.

"Because it's my favorite book. But it's a movie, so it's different." She said.

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><p>"That was awful." She said, laughing as the credits went on.<p>

"True, but it was fun hate watching it." He said. They stood up, leaving the theater, and walked back up to her room.

"Well thanks for going with me. That was fun." He said as they reached her room.

"Yeah, it was." She said as she opened the door to her room. She went in and closed the door to see her maids right there.

"How was it?" They all asked her.

"Good." She replied.

"Okay, now let's get you ready for bed." Ivory said.

They got her ready for bed, and she climbed into the heavenly cloudy bed as they left themselves. She closed her eyes, and was out.

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><p>Riley's POV<p>

Riley watched as Anastasia and Grace were grilled about their dates. The group of girls with Lucinda and Colette were giving them scornful looks. Shaylienne had told Riley quietly that she'd received an invitation for a date too, but she was keeping quiet about it, and Riley could see why. Those group of girls were kind of rabid and scary. She listened to the girls questioning Anastasia and Grace, but didn't pile on. She could see at the very least Grace wanted to dissapear, and wasn't bothering to hide it.

"So what did you do during the movie?"

"How good is he at archery?"

"Did you do anything else?"

The questions kept coming. Riley watched. She was pretty sure from her experience as a diplomat that Grace wasn't telling them something, but then again, she wouldn't either if she was being interrogated about her date.

Finally, the door to the Women's room opened, and in came Sylvia. The questioning and all other chatter immediately ceased.

"Girls, I have an announcement." She said, pausing for a moment.

"This Friday, all of you will appear on the Illea Capitol Report. You will not be interviewed, but you will appear. The Friday after that, you will appear, and you will be interviewed." She said. She surveyed the room. Nobody spoke, so she walked back out. The girls who had been questioning Grace and Anastasia immediately ceased to talk about the Report. Some of them ran up to their rooms to make sure their maids were making something they wanted. Riley knew her maids were already almost finished with a beautiful silver gown.

She walked over to Grace and Anastasia, who were chatting. She sat next to them. They eyed her somewhat warily, and she couldn't blame them.

"I'm not going to ask you a bunch of questions about your date." She said. They immediately brightened up.

"I'm Grace." Said Grace.

"I'm Anastasia." Said Anastasia.

"I'm Riley." She said to both of them. Anastasia whispered something to Grace. She sighed, but nodded.

"Anastasia thinks that I should tell you I dumped a bucket of water on the Prince." She said, sighing. Riley started laughing immediately.

"Why?" She choked out.

"It was the loser's treat. And he lost." Grace told her, smiling.

"Wait, so what do you guys do outside of this?" Anastasia asked them.

"I'm a diplomat." Said Riley.

"I'm a seamstress." Grace replied.

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><p><strong>Couldn't think of a good way to end this chapter ):<strong>

**Hope you liked this chapter! Next chapter will be the Report, so yeah.**

**HestiaAbnegation11-Yes! I just don't like it when in general they assume one gender is smarter. But yeah, a lot of advanced math in my grade is girls...**

**Dolphinsplash12-Yes! Animals totally do have feelings! They are sweet and caring, and you need feelings for that! Plus, I definitely agree that we do a ton of horrible stuff that animals don't. Personally I think animals are way morally superior to us, and that we aren't superior to them.**

**Alia Sharma-Thanks!**

**4Love4Love-Here's Anna's date, so I hope you liked it and didn't explode waiting. People exploding is usually bad. Always bad, in fact. So try not to.**

**RQOTD-Siblings?**

**One annoying older brother.**

**Also, do you guys like colored pointe shoes or uncolored (by which I mean normal color.)**

**I think uncolored. The colored ones, especially the pink ones, I think are just kind of gaudy.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Alright, so here's this chapter!**

**Once again, please stop bothering me about your characters/characters you want POVs/things you want me to do! It is ultimately MY STORY (except the parts that belong to Kiera Cass)! It's really annoying, so please STOP!**

**Also, for the next Report, I'm not going to do an interview with every character, just the mains and probably a few others, but not a ton.**

**Thanks to **4Love4Love, HestiaAbnegation11, **and** Dolphinsplash12 **for being amazing reviewers!**

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><p>Lucinda's POV<p>

Lucinda looked over at some of the other girls in annoyance. They were chatting and giggling-NERVOUS for the Report tonight. She sneered, and turned back to her group of girls. So far, none of them had gotten a date-only Grace, Anastasia, Shaylienne, Jasey, and Holly had gotten dates. She hadn't even received an invitation to go on a date. Her, Lucinda Summerfield! The Prince obviously had no idea what he was doing.

Everyone looked up as Sylvia walked in, hoping it wasn't a lesson. They'd gotten a few of those, and none of them wanted more. The history ones even she thought were okay, but the etiquette ones were dreadfully boring. Plus, she knew most of the stuff, and it was only useful for the lower caste girls.

"Girls, as you know, you will be making an appearance on the Report tonight. You will be expected to behave exceedingly well and in a way that would behoove you, so I'm here to go over that with you." She said.

* * *

><p>Thirty minutes later Lucinda yawned openly as Sylvia left the room. So. Freaking. BORING. She was done with etiquette lessons. She sighed as she got up. It was about time to start getting ready for dinner, and the Report. She walked up to her room to see what her maids had done.<p>

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><p>Riley's POV<p>

Riley picked at her food a little. It was delicious, and she could eat almost anything save something they'd served on her trip to Swendway, at least externally neutral, thanks to her diplomatic training. She was just nervous. Crisis in another country? Got it. Leaving on a moments notice? Okay. Appearing at an important meeting with hair all messed up? Not the end of the world. But going on the Report? Oh boy.

Her maids had made her a stunning silver dress, and she had it along with some silver and rose quartz earrings, and a simple carnelian bracelet.

As the girls finished up with their dinners, they began to trickle out. This week, there wasn't quite enough time to change, but there was enough to touch up makeup or switch accessories and hair. Riley had had her maids just get her ready for the Report, so she just walked down to the set with a couple of other girls.

As the time began to edge closer, more girls began to show up. They'd been told to be ten minutes early, so some were earlier, and others were not. Riley walked over to the seating that had been set up for them, and took a seat near the back, but not all the way back. She found Anastasia and Lilly beside her, Grace behind her, and Francesca in front of her. All the girls were chatting.

"I love your dress, Anna." She said to Anastasia, who rarely wore cool colors, was wearing a silk emerald green dress.

"Thanks! Yours is really pretty too!" She said, looking at the material of Riley's dress.

Unsurprisingly to Riley, and probably most of the other girls, the group of girls with Colette and Lucinda all showed up late, wearing dresses that were technically full length, but had Sylvia scowling a little bit. Lucinda was wearing a dress that was pretty much a gold mini dress, but with a layer or two of yellow tulle going down to the floor, technically making it a full length dress, but really a mini dress. Colette had gone a different route with her dress-a soft blue, one shouldered dress that from the front appeared fine, but was mostly backless, but was relatively inoffensive. Bethany, Julie, and Imogen were practically wearing the same dress in different colors with slight variations-form fitting, strapless, not backless, low neckline, and slit for Bethany and Imogen.

People were bustling all over the set. Someone started counting down. The chatter of the girls fell away.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, we're live!"

Riley zoned out as announcements were made. She made sure to sit up straight, but most of it was pretty boring. Progress in the elimination of the seventh caste was almost done, projected for a year and a half. Stuff about the economy. Nothing very interesting. They were mentioned, accompanied by photographs, but not much time was devoted to them, which made sense to her. Next week most of the Report would be devoted to them, and they'd been here pretty much only a week.

Finally, the Report ended. Riley stood up, careful to make sure her leg wasn't asleep. That could get bad in heels. She walked down the seats, leaving the set. Some of the girls lingered, but she was tired. She just wanted to sleep.

* * *

><p>Grace's POV<p>

Grace woke up much later than usual. The Report last night had gone late, so she'd slept in a bit more.

Her maids already had a dress out-not strapless, as both of yesterday's had been, and it was a gray one-shouldered chiffon dress with a band of blue. She pulled the covers over her head and made a very un-ladylike noise, to the laughter of her maids, and then sat up.

"I'm awake now." She said. Her maids laughed.

* * *

><p>Ten minutes later, she was ready. A tiny bit of makeup was applied, but most of the time was spent putting the dress on, putting on a necklace with a pendant she'd brought from home-a silver with a few diamonds crescent moon, brushing her hair, which was a bird's nest, and making her look like she was not actually a zombie. Once that was done, she walked down to breakfast, where she found many of the girls already there. She found her name tag next to only Riley, as she was sitting at the end of the table, and took her place. Riley was smiling, and instead of her usual silver, was wearing a pale pink dress that went incredibly with her hair. Grace cocked her head at her. Riley looked at the other girls, and leaned over as Grace sat down next to her.<p>

"The Prince invited me on a date." She said quietly. Grace smiled at her, happy for her.

"That's great!" She said, quietly as well. It was well known Lucinda wanted to murder all the girls who'd gotten dates. She reached for one of the strawberry tarts in the middle of the table. There were two types-the ones Queen America liked, which she thought were revoltingly sweet and gelatinous, and then the ones with the cream underneath and the cream egg in the center that were actually good. She took a bite out of it and took a few strips of bacon off of one of the trays in the middle, as well as from fruit. As far as she was concerned, with some tea, that constituted breakfast.

"What're you going to do?" She asked quietly.

"A lunch picnic." Riley said. Grace smiled, and stopped as Imogen sat down across from them. Grace looked around the room.

"Where's Anaya?" Asked Grace.

"Probably on a date." Riley replied. Grace nodded, and they stood together, walking to the Women's Room.

* * *

><p><strong>Alright, so there's another chapter! Hope you guys liked it!<strong>

**HestiaAbnegation11-Yes, totally right! And older brothers are annoying! Grr.**

**4Love4Love-Thanks! I think she will, but not totally sure. And yes, light pink/nude are definitely the best.**

**RQOTD: Are you outdoorsy?**

**Sorta. I'm doing a school backpacking trip, and I want to hike the John Muir trail next Summer.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Alright, so here's the next chapter!**

**I can't believe how fast the end of school is coming up! I have less than three weeks until I leave! Ah! Yay! And my trapeze show is this weekend! AHHHHHHHHH! **

**Thanks to **Dolphinsplash12, Alia Sharma, 4Love4Love **and **HestiaAbnegation11 **for being great reviewers!**

* * *

><p>Summer's POV<p>

Summer looked around the room. Only two more girls were gone since yesterday, but it felt like more. Yesterday both Andromeda and Lilly had been eliminated after their dates. Apparently he just hadn't seen a connection with Lilly, and Andromeda had said some things that were rumored to be rude and unkind, and had been eliminated for it, but nobody knew what she'd said.

Summer looked around the room. She was kind of bored. Essentially, the Women's Room was a big socializing room, and she got tired of socializing, at least for now. She decided to go up to her room to get something to bring down to the Women's Room.

In her room, she was greeted by her maids hiding something behind their backs as she opened the door.

"Can I see?" Summer asked.

"No." They all replied in giggling unison. Summer started giggling a little.

"Well okay." She said, still laughing. She walked over to her bedside table, thinking she might have something there, when she noticed a letter with her name on the front. She shrugged, and opened it.

_Lady Summer-_

_I was wondering if you_

_would like to join me for a _

_picnic in the gardens at lunch tomorrow?_

Her maids were all looking at her, smiling.

"What're you going to do?" Asked Natalie, one of her maids, excitedly.

"A picnic tomorrow." Summer replied. Then she remembered why she'd come up to her room in the first place.

"Is there anything I could bring down to the Women's room?" She asked. They smiled sympathetically, as if they knew-which they probably did-how boring it could get.

* * *

><p>Ten minutes later, she was walking down to the Women's Room with a bag her maids had found carrying some stuff-some trivia, cards, a couple books, some drawing materials, and several bottles of nail polish. She pushed open the door, and brought her bag of stuff over to the trio of chairs she liked-and actual chair that was really comfy, a bowl chair, and a furry beanbag chair, all by the window. When she thought of the Women's room at first, she thought it'd be proper and uncomfortable, but really, it was really comfortable and didn't have many proper chairs.<p>

Grace walked over, flopping unceremoniously in the bean bag chair, looking up at Summer, and waving. Summer laughed, pulling out the bottles of nail polish. Grace looked up at them curiously.

"Nail polish." She explained. Then she had an idea.

"You want some?" She asked Grace. Grace shrugged and stood up, poking through the bag.

Finally Summer settled on hot pink and a sparkly brown-ish nude. Grace had a bottle of silver in one hand, and a sort of metallic dark blue and top coat in the other. Both of them sat down on the floor, kicking their shoes off.

* * *

><p>Grace's POV<p>

Grace looked at her nails. They looked pretty good, especially because she'd given them patience while drying. Metallic-y dark blue with silver speckles, it reminded her of the night sky. Plus two layers of clear coat. Summer's also looked good-all of the nails a hot coral except her ring finger, which was a sparkly brown/nude color. Grace closed up the bottle, hoping for the fumes to go away soon.

* * *

><p>After lunch, she, Anastasia, Summer, and Riley started to play trivia.<p>

"What's an atom that's lost its electron?" Grace asked them. The other girls bit their lips. Shaylienne, who was walking by, told them the answer.

"Positive." She said.

On it went. More girls came, and it made Grace happy to see all the girls together.

Then Sylvia came in. That meant only one thing. Lesson.

Ugh.

* * *

><p>Anastasia's POV<p>

Anastasia did her best to stand straight as Sylvia led them all to the room where lessons were held. She took her seat, using all her willpower not just putting her head on the desk. Sylvia shooed the last few girls in, and then went to the front of the room.

"Girls, today we will be learning about the history of our nation." Sylvia said. She perked up a little. It would probably still be boring, but nowhere near as bad as etiquette.

* * *

><p>"And how did that happen?" Sylvia asked the class, referring to the debt of America. The class was going on and on. It was actually pretty interesting, but her feet were both asleep, and her back wasn't used to sitting this straight, much less for this long. She was getting to the end though. None of the girls raised their hands, so she simply sighed and dismissed the class.<p>

Anastasia stood up once both of her feet were awake again, and started to walk out of the classroom. Summer caught up with her, and walked alongside her.

"How'd you think the lesson was, Anna?" Summer asked her.

"Better than the etiquette ones, but boring." She replied. Summer nodded.

"You can say that again. And we couldn't even slouch!" Summer exclaimed. Anna laughed.

* * *

><p><strong>Alright, so there's that chapter! It's kind of short, so sorry about that.<strong>

**Alia Sharma-Thanks! And here's the eliminations**

**Dolphinsplash12-Basically it was boring and political so none of the girls really listened. **

**HestiaAbnegation11-That's too bad. I'll probably give Jesssamine a part on the next Report.**

**RQOTD-Are you addicted to caffeine, and if so, from what?**

**If I'm not, I'd be surprised. ****I drink a lot of black tea, so I'll have to stop soon before I go away for a bunch of stuff. *sigh***


	24. Chapter 24

**Alright, so here's this chapter. **

**I've asked this before, but nobody really responded, should I do Emmaline's POV?**

**Check out my tumblr page, gracetheelder, obviously followed by .tumblr, then .com, none of the words in between, but if I do it all together, this deletes it.**

**Thanks to **Alia Sharma, HestiaAbnegation11, **and **Dolphinsplash12 **for being amazing amazing reviewers!**

* * *

><p>Riley's POV<p>

Riley almost couldn't believe the pace at which the Selection was progressing.

All the girls save Imogen and Anaya had been taken on dates, and Anaya was out on a date, and Imogen was going later in the day. Grace had gone on two dates, much to the envy of many of the girls. Marie and Julie had both been eliminated after their dates, and so on top of Lilly and Andromeda, as well as the first round of group eliminations, there was now only twenty-two girls left. Earlier in the week, Sylvia had announced that on the Report on Friday, all of the girls would be interviewed by Gavril, which given it was only a day away, was both exhilarating and completely nerve-wracking.

She watched as the door opened, and Anaya walked in. A couple girls went over to her, eager to hear what she had to say, but for the most parts, almost all the girls had gone on dates, and none were particularly interested in other girls first dates.

She went to sit on a couch, tired. She was friends with most of the girls, which was nice. There were some girls who she was better friends with, but being able to talk with anyone was nice, but tiring sometimes.

* * *

><p>Noah's POV<p>

Noah sighed. He'd finished taking all the girls but Imogen on dates, and he was exhausted. On top of the Selection, he still had other stuff to do, though his dad had taken mercy on him, remembering his own Selection, and gotten him a much reduced workload. He went to his room, flopping on the massive bed. Then he decided to go to the music room. He hadn't been since before the Selection started, and he was missing the piano. His mom had taught all of her kids how to play an instrument or instruments, and the palace had a beautiful collection of instruments. He walked towards the music room, a slight sound of music intensifying as he got closer. He assumed his mom, pushed open the door, and was surprised to find Emmaline practicing her cello.

"I though you weren't supposed to practice." Was the first thing to tumble out of his mouth. She scowled at him, continuing playing.

"No, apparently now it's supposed to strengthen the small muscles in my fingers and forearms or something. Doc changed his mind again." She said. Noah laughed as he watched her sparkly blue and white fingers move up and down the cello. He went to the piano room-two rooms with two pianos each, and played for a while before becoming restless. He stood back up, and went out to the main area where Emmaline was still practicing, pacing. She sighed.

"Again?" She asked annoyedly. He shrugged.

"I have another date later." He said. She nodded.

"I don't know who to eliminate! What if it's someone I would have liked! It's too hard!" He said. She sighed.

"Well, for now it isn't. Just get rid of the girls you don't like. Like Lucinda. She's a bitch." She said, stating it matter of factly after laying her cello on its side.

"First, how do you know that, and second, she has a lot of influence." He said, earning another eye roll like he was the stupidest person on the planet.

"First, I have ears, and the maids talk. Second, take it from me that sometimes you just need to do something." She said, fixing him with one of her icy stares she'd perfected against the advisors.

"They told me not to eliminate her." He said. She bit her lip. She knew by _they _that he meant the advisors.

"It's your Selection though! I thought that they changed it so it's your choice!" She exclaimed, indignant.

"They made it so that it's better, but it's still not entirely me. They're still pulling some of the strings." He said, sighing.

"Well when _can_ you eliminate her?" She asked. He shrugged.

"I'll probably have to keep her into the Elite." He said. Her eyes bugged out.

"The ELITE!" She cried, astonished.

"She'll be one of the advisor picks. I get eight picks, they get two. Mom and dad can't choose any, but they can tell me who they like if I ask because I'm not sure." He said, still pacing around the room.

"You only get eighty percent of the picks?" She said.

"Dad only got one, which was mom. The rest were by the advisors or his dad." He said. She gave him a disdainful look.

"Just because it's better than dad got does _not _excuse it. If you're going to stand by, go ahead, but you _should_ be fighting it." She said. She stood to exit the room, her exit slowed by the crutches and the door, which she looked at frustrated. Noah opened it for her, and she went out.

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><p><strong>Okay, so here's another chapter! It's a bit short, but I hope you enjoy anyways!<strong>

**Alia Sharma-Thanks! My profile has those who are left and eliminated on it.**

**Dolphinsplash12-History is fun, unless you have a bad teacher (which I had last year. I like history, and it was awful.) I should probably do something like a playlist, but I don't.**

**HestiaAbnegation11-Dr. Pepper-*shudders* well, it could be Coke I guess. I don't really like soda.**

**RQOTD-Do you have a fear of either snakes or spiders, both, or neither?**

**Only spiders. I hate them. It's irrational, I know. I love snakes though.**


	25. Chapter 25

**Alright, so here's this chapter! It'll be the second Report, but not all the girls are going to get interviews.**

**Most people have stopped, but what the f*ck did you not get about the it's MY STORY a few chapters back, except the parts belonging to Kiera Cass?!**

**Thanks to **Alia Sharma, HestiaAbengation11, Dolphinsplash12, **and **4Love4Love **for being amazing reviewers! You guys are amazing!**

**I hit over 100 reviews! YAY!**

* * *

><p>Anastasia's POV<p>

Anastasia walked into her room, earlier than usual. Today her maids would prepare her for dinner, and not only an appearance on the Report, but an interview. She was a bit nervous-she didn't want to have to reveal the number of dates she'd been on, as only she and Grace had been on two.

Lacey came over to her and covered her eyes with her hands. She heard rustling as Ivory and Lucy pulled something out-presumably her dress, and heard an unzipping sound. A moment later, Lacey withdrew her hands to reveal the sight of Ivory and Lucy holding up a simple but beautiful strapless emerald green dress. She gasped, and they looked crestfallen.

"I love it!" She said. She didn't usually go for cool colors, but it was a beautiful dress, and it was a special occasion. Her maids got her into it and chatted about the other girls dresses.

"What do their dresses look like?" She asked, eager to know. They looked at each other. Ivory took the lead.

"Well, since you and Lady Grace are the only ones to have gotten two dates, all the girls except Lady Summer went with warmer colors, because that's what you two often wear, especially coral and pink, with bits of silver. We wanted to make you stand out." She said. Anna nodded.

"What's Summer's dress like?" She asked them.

"Ice blue, one shouldered chiffon. Her maids made it to go with her eyes." She said. Anna nodded. Summer did have really pretty blue eyes that blue dresses she often, though not always wore, tended to highlight.

"What about Grace's?" She asked. They shrugged.

"We didn't see it." Ivory replied.

Her maids sat her down at the vanity and started applying makeup and doing her hair.

* * *

><p>Almost two hours later, Anna was standing down on the set of the Report. She hadn't eaten much at dinner because she was nervous for the Report, even though what she had eaten, like everything so far at the palace, had been delicious. She milled around as girls started to arrive, seeing what her maids had said about warm colors, particularly coral and pink, from now and at dinner. It was easy to pick Summer out because of her ice blue dress, which looked great.<p>

People ran around the sets, trying to finish things off. She found Riley in a pale pink dress with a sweetheart neckline and a mesh one-shoulder, but couldn't find Grace, which was unusual.

Finally, she saw Grace run in, out of breath, and unusually late. Usually she was one of the first ones here, but here she was arriving breathless with little time to spare. When she saw the dress, she understood why.

At dinner, she'd been wearing a pink dress, nice and simple. Now she was wearing a beautiful dark blue dress with silver sparkles at the top that gradually faded down into the dark blue, looking like the night sky. It was beautiful. She hurried over to the rest of the girls, breathless.

"You look great!" She exclaimed to Grace.

"Thanks! Running in heels is terrible!" She replied. Anna nodded, laughing. It was, and there was plenty of stairs.

"How'd you get here so fast in them?" She asked her.

"I carried them most of the way, and put them on just outside the studio." Grace admitted. Sylvia walked over, shooing the girls to their seats. People continued bustling over the Report, making the last few preparations.

* * *

><p>Summer's POV<p>

"Five, four, three, two, one, we're live!" A voice called out.

"Welcome to the Illea Capitol Report. This week, we'll be interviewing the lovely ladies of the Selection, but before that, we have a few announcements." Said Gavril. King Maxon stepped up.

"Our ongoing negotiations for a trade deal are drawing to a close, a deal is almost worked out, and is expected to boost our economy and create more jobs, though the exact number isn't known yet." He said. This was followed by applause. He continued, talking about the lunch program in schools and how there was going to be a reclassification of those eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch, as well as the progress on the elimination of caste 6. Finally, they were up. She knew she was second-the girls were in a random order, which they'd been informed of by Sylvia.

She watched as Gavril introduced them, and as Anaya walked up to do her interview. She concentrated on her breathing and her practice earlier with her maids. As Anaya walked back to her seat, she stood up, walking out and sitting in the chair across from Gavril. She folded her hands across her lap, trying not to fidget with them.

"So Lady Summer, how have you been liking the palace?" Gavril asked, starting off easy.

"It's great, and I love it. Everyone is really nice, and the food is great." She said, smiling. Everyone chuckled at the last part.

"What have you done with the Prince?" He asked her.

"We did a round of bowling." She said.

"What's your favorite part of this?" He asked her. Oh boy. This was hard, and she hadn't practiced it. It was all her on this one.

"I love meeting all the girls and just making new friends, because at the end of the day, friends are like stars-they come and go, but the ones who stay glow." She said. The room fell silent, and people began clapping. As it started to die down, Gavril spoke again.

"Well thank you Lady Summer." He said. She stood, walking back to her seat in the tiered seats, knowing that what she said had been true. As nice as some of the materialistic things about the Selection were, the friends were the things that would stay with her no matter what happened.

* * *

><p>Manvi's POV<p>

Manvi stood up as Summer went back to her seat, smoothing our her orange-coral dress. It was similar to most of the other dresses , though more orange, making her stand out a bit more, though not much. She knew that she would probably pale in comparison to Summer. She sat down in the chair across from Gavril, nervous.

"So Lady Manvi, how have you been liking the palace?" He asked her.

"It's wonderful." She said, giving a short reply.

"What do you do in your free time here?" He asked her.

"The other girls and I all hang out in the Women's Room together." She said.

"And last question, what did you do for your date with the Prince?" He asked her.

"We watched a movie." She said.

"Well thank you Lady Manvi." He said. She nodded and stood, walking back to where she'd been sitting.

* * *

><p>Riley wrung her hands, pretty sure nobody could see because she was near the back of the seats, along with Anastasia, Grace, and Summer. Among them she stood out for her pale pink dress, and pink hair, but among everybody else, the delicate pink silk and tulle dress blended right in.<p>

She watched as girls went up, all of them asked three or four questions, and then sent back to their seats. Most of them were the same question with some variations-how are you liking the palace, what do you do, how many dates have you gone on, what did you do, et cetera. It was pretty repetitive, but the people didn't know that much about it, so to them it was new.

Finally, Jasey stood up from her interview, and Riley stood, walking out to the chair facing Gavril.

"So Lady Riley, what do you like about the palace?" He asked her.

"The food is really good, and the other girls are really nice." She said, thinking of Lucinda and Colette and their groupees.

"How many dates have you gone on?" Gavril asked her.

"Just one." She replied.

"And what did you do?" Gavril questioned.

"We went on a picnic in the gardens." She said.

"Well thank you Lady Riley." He said. She took her que, standing and walking back to her seat as the next girl walked up.

* * *

><p>Jessamine's POV<p>

Jessamine smoothed out her coral and silver dress as she stood up. It was very similar to many of the others-chiffon, coral and silver, though hers had little silver cap sleeves as well. She sat down in the chair that Riley had just vacated.

"So Lady Jessamine, how have you been liking the palace so far?" Gavril asked.

"It's great. Everyone is nice, and it's beautiful." She said. Well, with exceptions. But that's not exactly the thing she wanted to say on live TV.

"What did you do on your date?" He asked her.

"We just walked around some of the grounds." She replied.

"And what do you do in your free time?" He asked her.

"I hang out with the other girls." She said.

"Well thank you Lady Jessamine." He said. She stood, walking back to her seat.

* * *

><p>Colette's POV<p>

Colette looked around at the other girls annoyedly. Almost all of them were wearing dresses super similar to her, though not quite as daring. Hers was near backless, strapless, and had a slit going partway up her thigh. Lucinda was wearing almost the same dress, though redder, and more backless. She watched, waiting for her cue for her interview. Finally, she stood, walking out to the seat across from Gavril.

"So Lady Colette, how have you been liking the palace so far?" He asked her. She knew how to play a crowd, and amazement was the best way here.

"It's great. All the girls are really nice." She said, smiling much more charmingly than she really was.

"And what did you do on your date?" He asked her.

"We watched a movie in the movie theater." She said, still smiling.

"And what's your favorite part about the palace?" He asked. Once again, she knew to play this one to the crowd, not honestly. _Money _and _the crown_ wouldn't exactly endear her to them, nor the prince.

"All the girls. It's so nice getting to meet them." She said.

"Well thank you Lady Colette." He said. She stood, walking back to her seat, still smiling sweetly.

* * *

><p>Lucinda's POV<p>

Lucinda watched as Bethany finished her interview. She stood, striding out confidently. Her dress was extremely revealing, and a red-coral color, and it annoyed her to no end that almost all the girls were wearing dresses like hers and yet Grace still stood out. _And _she looked would have stolen Grace's dress if not for the fact that Grace had arrived with barely any time, and was about a foot shorter than her. She sat in the chair.

"So Lady Lucinda, how have you been liking the palace?" He asked her.

"Oh, it's wonderful." She said, smiling, but not elaborating.

"And what have you done with the Prince?" He asked her.

"We went to the movie theater and watched a movie together." She said, continuing with her smile.

"Well thank you Lady Lucinda." He said. She smiled, walking back to her seat.

* * *

><p>Anastasia's POV<p>

Anastasia idly fingered the material of her dress. She was second to last, which wasn't doing anything to help her nerves. Someone like Summer was lucky-near the beginning, so she got it out of the way, but not first. She watched as Imogen, the girl in front of her, walked back to her seat. She stood, walking out to the chair across from Gavril, trying to keep her hands from fidgeting with the green material of the dress.

"So Lady Anastasia, how have you been liking the palace?" He asked her, as he had every girl before her.

"It's wonderful. The people are nice, plus the food is really good." She replied, beaming, her earlier nervousness ebbing to some extent.

"And what have you done with the Prince?" He asked her.

"We watched a movie together, and we went horseback riding together." She said, still smiling.

"And how was that?" He asked her.

"It was great. The horses were really nice." She told him, and the rest of the country.

"What movie did you watch?" He asked her.

"The City of Ember. It's my favorite book, but not such a great movie." She said.

"Well thank you Lady Anastasia." He said. She nodded and stood, walking back to her seat, and watching Grace stand up to do the final interview.

Grace's POV

Grace stood up, watching Anastasia's dress catch the light. She took a breath, smoothed her dress, and walked out, brushing her hair from the waterfall braid out of her face. She thought she looked pretty good. Her maids had put her into the dress she was in now, which was beautiful-like someone had captured the night sky and put it on a dress. For all she knew, that's what her maids had done. They'd accompanied it with simple sapphire drop earrings and a sapphire bracelet, and a waterfall braid and light makeup. She continued walking mechanically, trying to keep her breathing even. She sat down in the chair across from Gavril.

"So Lady Grace, how have you been enjoying the palace?" He asked her.

"It's great. It's great getting to meet all the other girls and eat the food." She said, with a similar response to all of the other girls.

"And what have you done with the Prince?" He asked her.

"We went to the archery range, and we went horseback riding." She replied.

"And what's your favorite thing about being here?" He asked her.

"Just meeting everyone else and making new friends is definitely my favorite part about being here, but I also really like the dance studio." She said.

"You're a dancer?" He asked her.

"Yes. I do ballet." She said.

"Well thank you Lady Grace. This will conclude our interviews of the lovely Ladies of the Selection!" He announced as Grace rose, walking back to her seat.

* * *

><p><strong>Well, there's another chapter! Sorry it's been so long, I tried to make it longer to make up for it.<strong>

**Alia Sharma-Thanks! Here she is!**

**HestiaAbnegation11-I'm a child of Athena there too**

**Dolphinsplash12-Thanks! I do like to keep a healthy spider-free radius around me.**

**4Love4Love-Thanks! I'm with you there-I actually enjoy snakes, but spiders-I'm a child of Athena**

**RQOTD-What's your favorite thing to do on the weekend?**

**Go to my trapeze and aerial classes. They're like some of my very favorite things in the whole world. **


	26. Chapter 26

**Alright, so here's the next chapter, potentially the last before I leave! I know I'm saying it every chapter, but now it's a lot closer-as in no more chapters as of this Friday for about 2.5 weeks.**

**Thanks to Alia Sharma, HestiaAbnegation11, Dolphinsplash12, **and **4Love4Love for being amazing reviewers!**

* * *

><p>Riley's POV<p>

Riley sat next to Jasey. She was scared, but was doing better controlling it than some of the girls in hysterics. Jasey was doing pretty well, at least externally.

"Do you have any siblings?" Riley asked her.

"Yeah. Two younger sisters and a younger brother." She said. Muffled noises that Riley was pretty sure were gunshots rang out, making her start a bit.

"I'd like to have siblings. Are they nice?" She asked somewhat wistfully.

"They're nice, but they can be pretty annoying." She said tersely. They lapsed back into silence, thinking of the guards who were putting their lives out so that other people could survive. Hopefully.

* * *

><p>Grace's POV<p>

Grace stayed still, petrified. She could hear voices from what she was pretty sure was her room, going through her stuff. She tried to calm her breathing, unmoving, knowing that any noise could well cost her her life.

"The damn girls all got out!" One of them, a guy it sounded like, exclaimed.

"I'm surprised that they still remember the protocols." Another remarked dryly, the sound muffled by the space between them. The second voice sounded vaguely familiar. She knew she'd heard it before, she just couldn't place where it was from.

"Well, nothing here." The first voice said. The voices stopped, and she assumed they'd left the room. She stayed in the air shaft.

* * *

><p>Summer's POV<p>

Summer sat with Shaylienne. Almost all the girls-except the bitchy ones-were sitting with random girls they didn't usually. Most of them were scared to some degree, some of them breaking into hysterics in the corner. The royal family was gathered around a cot, where Princess Emmaline was sleeping, hooked up to something. A few of the girls were sleeping, and others shivering. Shorts and a t-shirt was nice in the upstairs rooms, but in this room where the cold seemed to just seep through, not quite as nice. At least she had her robe and slippers.

"So, what do you do?" Shaylienne asked her, the conversation surprisingly normal and pleasant for an unpleasant, stressful time.

"I'm a swimmer. You?" She asked her.

"I write." She said. They went back into their previous silence. In other circumstances, they probably would have continued talking, but now-not the best time.

* * *

><p>Summer watched as the door burst open. Everyone drew back, and then saw the guard's uniform.<p>

"The palace has been cleared of Insurgents, and you may all go back up now." He informed them. They all stood, the room exhaling audibly. He left the room, and the words "All Clear" began blaring in place of the wailing siren that had been ceaselessly going since the beginning of the attack.

She stood, looking for Grace, but not seeing her. That was odd. She followed the rest of the girls out of the safe room, going up all of the flights of stairs that they'd hurried down.

* * *

><p>Anastasia's POV<p>

Anastasia looked at the main level of the palace. It could have been more wrecked, that was for sure, but since she was used to seeing it pristine and perfect, it was a shock. There was shattered glass all over, and stains of what appeared to be blood. Some of the girls were still shocked. She followed the gaze of the turning heads and whispers to see Queen America behind them, her mouth a grim line.

"Markson! Heralds!" She called out to two of the guards. Anna watched as they hurried over to her. She talked to them for a moment, and one of them hurried off again. Then she looked at all of the girls.

"Girls, breakfast is going to be in your room, and you can eat with other girls, as long as it's up in your rooms. Officer Markson is going to show you all an alternate route to your rooms." She said. The girls followed behind him, and Anna wondered what the state of the normal route was, and if that was the state of their rooms as well.

* * *

><p><strong>Short chapter, I know, but I started to get writer's block.<strong>

**Alia Sharma-Thanks! I haven't read The Heir yet, but I want to**

**4Love4Love-Thanks! She's pretty fun to write**

**HestiaAbnegation11-Cool**

**Dolphinsplash12-They are fun! And you volunteer at the zoo? That sounds AWESOME!**

**RQOTD-Nail polish or makeup?**

**Nail polish 1000%. I never wear makeup except at trapeze shows, because it just takes a while and I've had a bunch of stabbed-in-the-eye experiences. Plus I enjoy nail polish as a form of creativity and junky art.**


	27. Chapter 27

**Alright. So here's the deal.**

**I'm leaving on another trip that I'm super excited about in less than a week. I came back from my school trip early because I have an autoimmune disease my doctors think is in the Lupus family. My updates, even though I have time, may be few, because the meds I'm on are making me super tired (they screw up my sleep,) and achey, which makes me spend more time trying to convince my knees that they are not, indeed, eighty. So my updates (the ones before I leave, anyways,) may be a bit shorter because of this.**

**Alright, but here's another chapter. Hope you guys like it!**

**Thanks to 4Love4Love and HestiaAbnegation11 for being great reviewers!**

* * *

><p>Noah's POV<p>

Noah pushed open the door to the conference room-the big one. After the attack, almost all the advisors were present.

"Ah, we see you're _finally _here, Your Highness." Said one of the advisors in a condescending manner. He rubbed his eyes, not even bothering to respond. After the attack, he'd visited the girls, finding out that Grace had been safe in an air duct, and letting Hannah leave, because she was so shaken up by the attack, and then coming here. No coffee.

"Lay off, Reyes." Said his dad. Noah sat down, taking his place next to his dad, the seat next to him empty save a computer.

"Why's there a computer there?" He asked.

"Emmaline's going to be at the conference, though not in person." His mom said. True to his word, her face popped up on the screen.

"Hi." She said.

"Alright, since everybody's here, let's get started." Said Stavros. Everyone fell silent.

"We're here because after years of not attacking the palace, we've just had another rebel attack." He said, pausing. "So why now?" He asked them.

"They're displeased with how we're running things?" Came one suggestion.

"They want us to speed up caste removal?" Came another.

"It's a different sect, with different goals?" Came another. Stavros looked for that voice.

"Who said that?" He asked. Nobody raised their hand. Then he saw the face on the screen. If it hadn't been such a serious situation, they would have laughed.

"Yes, it's most likely that it is another group with a completely different focus in mind. Now, who would be doing it though?" He asked them.

"People opposed to caste destruction and Loyalists?" Noah asked. Stavros pointed at him.

"Precisely." He said.

"But who's leading them? A snake has to have a head." Asked America, thoughtful.

"That's what we're trying to figure out. However, we've definitely eliminated the Southerners as the source of the attack-none of the Southerners we have eyes on, which is most of them, were even in Angeles, and they've been approving of the way our country is moving. So we're fairly certain Loyalists are behind it, but we don't know exactly who is leading them." Said Stavros, going on one of his long-winded explanations.

"Well that's great. Just wonderful. Are the analysts working already?" Asked Emmaline. Stavros nodded curtly.

"Well, now we just need to work one clean-up." America said.

"The first floor sustained most of the damage, though parts of the second floor did take some."Aspen said. America nodded and stood, as did some of the advisors, and the computer screen went blank. He knew he was expected to stay, hoping that coffee would be brought in.

Once many of the people had left, they began again.

"So your Selection..." Said one of the advisors behind him.

"We want more picks in the Elite. We want four of them to be picked by us." Said Reyes. Noah'd never been much of a fan of Reyes.

"No." He said quietly, remembering what his sister had said about fighting it.

"Excuse me?" Said Reyes, unused to being challenged.

"No. I want to get at least eight of the picks. Just because there's a political side to it doesn't mean that I'm picking someone to be someone who I'm going to spend _the rest of my life_ being with. I want at least eight." He said.

Reyes looked at the King, whose face remained relatively impassive.

"But you don't understand. Some of these Ladies are influential, and it would look good-"

"I don't give a damn what looks good!" He said, his voice getting louder.

"You can't possibly understand-"

"Why not? Because his brain is too small?" Asked his dad. Reyes looked down.

"The best we can do is keep you with eight." He said aloofly. Noah looked away and rolled his eyes.

"Alirght." He said, standing up to leave. He walked out of the conference room, another binder tucked under his arm. He shut the door behind him, and went up to his room.

* * *

><p>Summer's POV<p>

Despite their protests, Summer helped her maids. The rebels had made a pretty good mess of her room, and she insisted she would help them clean up. They found her an extra pair of thick rubber gloves, which were good for cleaning, and if there were any small shards should protect her.

It was mostly just stuff strewn all over the place, which she felt she should help with, because it was her stuff. She knew they had a particular way of organizing some things, so she put them into a pile, because she knew how annoying it could be when other people organized your stuff wrong.

After about an hour, the room looked pretty good. It was scrubbed down, and everything was back into its place. A breakfast tray had been brought up, and her maids were urging her to let them finish the last few things while she ate. She would have protested, but she had a hummingbird metabolism and was ravenous, and would start getting irritable without food very, very soon. She grabbed the tray and sat down on the bed, and started to eat her breakfast, feeling the absence of the other girls she'd started to get so accustomed to.

* * *

><p><strong>4Love4Love-Thanks! I've been stabbed a few too many times by people who think I can't do my own mascara to trust it. It gave me mascara trust issues.<strong>

**HestiaAbnegation11-Fair enough. **

**RQOTD-What are you most looking forwards to doing this Summer (like, after school gets out. Or after June 21. Take your pick.)**

**Probably my trip to Europe that my family cashed in all of our airline miles to be able to go on, but I'm also really excited about going to Summer camp for three weeks with my best friend.**


	28. Chapter 28

**Sorry I haven't updated in so long guys! I was away on vacation w/ my family in Europe, which was awesome, but didn't really leave me time to update.**

**There's not much plot in this chapter, save a little bit towards the end. Next chapter will probably be the same.**

**I'm off to camp in like, a week, and I won't be updating then either. I'm really sorry! Please don't hate me for it! But if you do, it's understandable):**

**Thanks to **Alia Mehra, Kyramellark7, **and **HestiaAbnegation11 **for being amazing reviewers!**

* * *

><p>Riley's POV<p>

Riley finished shading in the last balloon being held by the penguin on the card she was making for Summer, and stood up from where she'd been bent over the table.

The Great Room looked fantastic. It wasn't too fancy, but it looked great for a birthday party, with the fanciest balloons she'd ever seen. She grabbed the card and a pen, and took it over to the area where all the nice girls were in small groups chatting.

First she took it to Shaylienne, Sally, and Holly, who were closest to her. Shaylienne and Sally had managed to engage Holly in conversation and were laughing, which was nice, because although Riley thought she was nice from the bit she'd interacted with her, she was very quiet.

"Will you guys sign this?" She asked them.

"Yeah!" Sally said. She took the pen, signed her name, and passed them to the other two girls.

"I love the drawing." She said, smiling.

"Thanks!" Riley said. A few of the other girls were trickling over, seeing the cards, and before long, they were passing it around, getting all of their signatures on it. Soon all of their signatures were on it, along with smiley faces and little notes from many girls. Well, all of the girls that were nice. The mean girls crowd was looking at them with disdain, with Imogen saying something to the other girls in their group, and in response, all of them raising their eyebrows. All the girls were watching them. After a few more exchanges, she stood up, and, to the rest of the girls surprise, walked away from them and towards the other girls.

As she approached the other girls, she looked sheepish, and many of them crossed their arms in an unimpressed manner. They stepped aside to let her pass, and then closed again, leaving her in a closed circle. She sighed.

"Guys, I know I've been a bitch. I'm really sorry. Can I sign the card?" She asked, looking at the floor. Many of the girls exchanged surprised and unsure glances. The mean girls looked smug at her vulnerableness. Riley finally cleared her throat and spoke up.

"Sure." She said, coming forwards with the card and pen. She signed, and put a little note on, then handed the note back to Riley.

The girls went back to chatting, although Imogen didn't go back to her group. Instead she sat on her own, nobody talking with her.

* * *

><p>Summer's POV<p>

Summer woke to the faces of her three maids waiting in front of her bed.

"Happy birthday!" They chorused enthusiastically as she sat up. She smiled.

"Thanks guys." She said. Natalie grabbed a tray and brought it over for her.

"They sent breakfast up." She said, setting it down on Summer's lap. Summer smiled at her, then thought about it.

"Wait, how late did I sleep?" She asked. She looked at her clock, and saw it read 9:30, an hour after breakfast was usually served. Then she looked down at her tray, and her eyes widened.

"Yes! Doughnuts! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" She exclaimed. She grabbed one and stuffed her face with as much as she could fit in her mouth in a very unladylike manner, causing chocolate frosting to get all over her face and her maids to start giggling uncontrollably.

She stuffed a few more bites in, and threw some powdered sugar at them, and then ran off giggling. They grabbed the water jug, and started chasing her around the room with it as she threw powdered sugar back at them. Finally, they got her, dousing her in the water. They all collapsed into a laughing pile, covered in water and powdered sugar.

"Let's get you cleaned up." Said Opal, her head maid.

* * *

><p>45 minutes later, there was no trace of their mini food fight. Her maids had gotten clean uniforms, and she no longer had frosting on her face. Her makeup was done, simply, but beautifully. Her hair was in a bun at the nape of her neck, with a little tendril hanging down at the front, and a thing of fake flowers going from the bun to the front.<p>

And the dress. It was dbeautiful. It was a full length, Grecian style one-shouldered dress, white chiffon, with a gold belt in the middle, topped off with metallic gold ballet flats and aquamarine drop earrings. It wasn't anywhere near her typical look, but it looked great.

"Now head on down to the Great Room." Opal said, shooing her out of the room. She went down the stairs, marveling at how quiet it was with just her instead of her and the shoes and chatter of the other girls.

She heard it before she saw it-the low chatter of voices coming from the Great Room. She kept on going and saw the doors to the Great Room were open. She peered in, and was astonished.

The already grand room was decorated, with the girls, as well as Queen America, King Maxon, and Princess Emmaline all milling around. There were tables laden with food and drink, tables and chairs for sitting and eating, a dance floor, and a lot of the fanciest balloons she'd ever seen. Several of the girls noticed her head peeking around the door, and rushed towards her.

"Happy Birthday!" They yelled, throwing confetti on her. She laughed, blowing a piece of gold confetti off her nose.

"Thanks guys." She said, smiling. She walked into the room with them, chatting, and saw several girls staring at her jealously.

"So how old are you turning?" Asked Silva.

"Seventeen." She said, popping a truffle she'd picked up from a nearby table into her mouth.

"Holy shit those are good!" She exclaimed quietly, running over and grabbing a plate and a few more.

"Those are fattening." Remarked Colette, who was standing near the table. Summer looked up at her with severe irritation.

"I don't care. I do a swim workout every day. And even if I didn't, I wouldn't care." She said coldly without looking up, and pointedly adding a few more to her plate, as well as some of the other sweets. _Bitch, _she added to the end in her head. She could see the hatred and jealousy in her eyes as she retreated towards the other girls. They cocked their heads questioningly, and she just rolled her eyes. They laughed, girls taking some of the sweets from her plate, not that she really minded.

"Oh look, there comes Noah!" Said Anastasia.

Noah entered the room, and walked over to Summer.

"Happy birthday, Summer." He said, handing her a small parcel wrapped beautifully, with a nice bow. She suspected the maids were to thank for that.

"Thanks!" She said, smiling. Queen America looked at the room, nudged King Maxon, and said something to him. He stood up.

"Um, since everyone's here, how about we have some cake because it tastes good and is awesome." He said to the whole room, causing everyone to laugh. Everyone went over to the three enormous cakes-one chocolate, one vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, and one red velvet. Summer joined the line, but the girls in front of her shooed her up and handed her a paper plate and plastic fork.

She looked at the cakes, took the cake cutter, and served herself a relatively big slice from all of the enormous cakes. She also took another plate, because hers was so full, and took some chocolate dipper strawberries and mini cupcakes. Then she went and sat down with her two plates, and was joined by the other girls, who laughed at her two heaping plates.

"Summer, you're going to go into, like, sugar shock from that." Said Shaylienne, laughing as she shook her head. Grace came over with similarly laden down plates, making some of the girls acquire a camera from somewhere and take a picture of them with their food. They laughed.

Once everyone had gotten their cake and other food, everyone sang happy birthday. Then, she finally got to go into her food. She was very methodical. First, she ate her cupcakes, then the chocolate strawberries. Then the red velvet cake, then the vanilla cake, chocolate buttercream frosting, and then the chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream frosting. By the time she was done, she'd eaten all of her food, and many of the girls whistled their impressment.

"Would you like to go on a walk in the gardens with me?" He asked her.

"Sure." She said, standing up. They walked out of the party, towards one of the doors that lead towards the gardens. The voices and noise of the party faded.

"So you're turning seventeen?" He asked her.

"Yep." She said.

"How did you eat all that food?" He asked her.

"What?" She said, smiling.

"All the food. How did you eat it all? My dad and I were wondering." He said. She laughed.

"I'm a swimmer, so I swim for a while every day. And I can eat a lot of food." She said. He nodded, but then looked puzzled again.

"Wait, but how did Grace eat all her food?" He asked.

"She's a dancer." She said, smiling. He nodded, and they walked in silence for a little while before she broke it.

"Can I be perfectly honest with you?" She asked.

"Of course." He said.

"I'm not sure I really feel attracted to you at all. I mean, you're a nice guy, but I feel like I would have felt some sort of spark or something, but it's not really there. I think you're a great guy, but I couldn't ever be anything more than your friend." She said. He looked at her, and instead of all the reactions she'd imagined, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank god. That's about where I am too. I mean, you're a great girl, but we wouldn't work out." He said. She nodded.

"Yeah." She said. They walked in silence for a few moments.

"So do you want me to send you home, or do you want to stay? Because I was thinking if you want to stay, you could maybe help me, and we could be like, normal friends." He said. She nodded.

"Like a spy?" She asked.

"Sort of, except less danger of death." He said.

"You underestimate the viciousness of girls." She said, smiling, somewhat jokingly, except with the exception of a few of the girls, who actually did make her a bit nervous.

"So _buddy,_ whatcha want to do today?" He asked her. She grinned evilly.

"You play sports?" She asked.

"Yes, I play tennis, and I do some archery, and I ride. And I play croquet." He said. She laughed.

"Come with me. It's time I introduce you to football." She said. He stood there, mouth hanging open.

"Football?" He repeated.

"Yeah, you scared?" She called back to him. He followed after her.

"No." He said. She laughed.

"And killer croquet." She said.

"Why are you heading back inside?" He asked her, stopping. She turned around.

"First, I can't run or do anything in this dress and shoes. Second, football will be more fun if there's more people. And thirdly, who wouldn't want to catch the prince and his first time playing football and killer croquet?" She asked, grinning evilly. His eyes widened, and he started chasing after her. Swearing, Summer tripped over her dress, grabbed a nearby watering can, and dumped it on him. They both ended up sputtering and laughing.

* * *

><p><strong>Well, there's that chapter! Next chapter will be killer croquet and football, which should be really fun to write, though not very important to the plot. It was nice and long though.<strong>

**Kyramellark7-Cool!**

**HestiaAbnegation11-Europe is awesome! And maaaybe you are...Or maaaybe you aren't...**

**Alia Mehra-Thanks! There's not really any cure for it, although sometimes I take meds to manage symptoms**

**RQOTD-Visual Arts, Drama, or Music?  
>Probably Visual Arts, though I love playing cello too. I have sketchbooks full of drawings I've done.<strong>


	29. Chapter 29

**Alright, so here's another not very plot-heavy chapter, but just kind of fun.**

**NOTE: I don't play football. I don't really even watch it. So some of the stuff may be wrong. And some of it is just for fun, even though I know it's not allowed.**

**Thanks to **Alia Mehra, HestiaAbnegation11, **and **4Love4Love **for being totally awesome reviewers! You guys are completely totally awesome!**

* * *

><p>Summer's POV<p>

Once they'd gotten inside, Noah went up to change his suit, because his was covered in water from the watering can she'd thrown on him. He also had to recruit his team, since it was going to be girls vs. boys. She went back into the party to see if she could recruit any of the girls to play football. She saw most of the girls sitting in one big group. They all looked up as she approached.

"What'd you guys do?" One of them asked.

"We just walked around the gardens a little bit and talked." She said.

"Actually, I was wondering if anyone wants to play football." She said. A few of the girls looked at her like she was crazy, while a few looked interested.

"I'll play." Said Grace, shrugging.

"I will too, if it's okay." Said Imogen quietly.

"Yeah, sure." Said Summer.

In the end, it ended up being her, Grace, Imogen, Sally, and Anastasia. Many of the girls decided to come watch them for fun. Queen America drifted over.

"What are you girls planning on doing?" She asked them.

"Football with Noah." Said Grace. She smiled, her blue eyes lighting up.

"Sounds a lot more fun than my Selection. Can I come watch?" She asked them. They all nodded. She drifted back over to King Maxon, said something, and he laughed, then dashed out of the room. The girls who were going to play football all followed to change into better clothes.

* * *

><p>"Wait, <em>what <em>are you doing?" Her maids asked her when she got up to her room.

"Football." She said. They burst out laughing, and rummaged through her closet until they found athletic clothes, and handed them to her. She changed into them, carefully took out the pins from her hair, and put it up in a ponytail. Then she wiped the makeup off her face.

"Is it just for the Selected girls?" Natalie asked her quietly.

"No, of course you can play!" Summer said.

"Is it all right if I do?" She asked, smiling.

"Yes!" Summer exclaimed. Natalie looked at Opal, who nodded, and left, a few minutes later returning with sports clothes on. Summer finished lacing up her shoes.

"Let's go." She said.

* * *

><p>On the landing, she found Sally already ready. The other girls soon appeared.<p>

"Guys, this is Natalie, my maid, and she'll be on our team as well." She said. The other girls introduced themselves as they descended the stairs and headed back to the party. There, they found Noah with several large guards, dressed in shorts and t-shirts, as well as many of the girls, as well as Queen America, King Maxon, and Princess Emmaline waiting for them. They walked over to Noah.

"This is my team." He said, smiling, once they were near him, gesturing to the guards around him. They all smiled at the girls.

"So where are you guys going to play?" One of the girls asked.

"There's plenty of grass we could play on." Replied one of the guards, who was holding a football.

"I forgot to introduce you guys. This is Kile, Henry, Adam, Ben, and Cameron." He said, introducing them, pointing at them. Summer looked around.

"Let's go!" She said.

They walked for about five minutes before coming to a large field. Lines had somehow already been sprayed on, and makeshift goal posts erected. The girls stood near the edge of the field, along with a few of the media photographers. One of the older guards was refereeing, and Queen America and King Maxon were chatting with him. The guys team was in a huddle, so the girls did the same.

"Who's played football before?" Asked Grace.

All of them raised their hands.

"Could the Captains of each team come over please." Said the referee. The girls all looked at Summer, and pushed her towards him. Unsurprisingly, Noah was the other captain. Both of them walked over. The man looked at Noah.

"Are you taller?" He asked him, smiling. Noah shrugged, smiling. He looked at Summer, tiny compared to both of them, who were quite tall.

"I'm Aspen Leger, by the way." He said.

"Hi." She said. They shook hands.

"Alright, so I'm going to flip a coin. You'll call it in the air, and if you're right, you'll start with the ball." He said. She nodded. he drew a coin out of his pocket, and flipped it.

"Tails." She said. It landed, and they all crouched down. It was tails. He looked at Noah.

"Tell your team you'll kick to them first." He said. He nodded, and both of them went back to their respective teams-his composed of large guards, and hers of smaller girls. The ball was given to the guys team for them to kick, and it started.

Imogen caught the ball, and took off. The guards bore down on them, towering over them. She avoided one, but then got taken down in the midst of them, but managed to cling to the ball.

Once they hiked it, Imogen threw it upfield to Grace, but it was intercepted by a guard simply because Grace was at least a foot shorter than the guard. She grabbed his foot, dragging behind him, until another guard pried her off, letting him run. he ran around all the girls until only Sally, the smallest girl, remained. He ran straight at her, as she was in the most direct path to the end zone, and she was tiny.

However, he did not get what he bargained for. A moment before collision, she bent her knees and threw herself forwards, and with the strength acquired from gymnastics, threw him over one shoulder, and started walking down the field. The other guys looked at Aspen expectantly for a call, but he was laughing too hard to actually make a call. When he'd recovered, he yelled 'no!', and Sally kept walking down the field.

Imogen walked behind her, and when the guard dropped the ball, she picked it up and ran down the field, sliding under the legs of one of the girls to make a touchdown. The girls all high-fived her, and despite her past bitchiness, at least for the moment, she was part of the group.

As the game continued, the cheating became more egregious. Noah and the guards attempted to use their ponytails as leashes, while Sally continued picking up guards, and Imogen did once too. Tackle piles became throwing dirt, and soon they were all covered in dirt. At one point, Grace even tied Noah's shoelaces together, which ended hilariously. Summer herself at a few points clung to the legs of the guards like a monkey toddler to slow them down. It worked, and made them waddle hilariously.

By the end of the game, everyone was laughing. The girls had won, with many justified cries of "Cheater!" from the other team. Noah walked up to Summer, panting.

"That's football?" He asked, eyes wide. She nodded.

"Is it always like that?" He asked.

"When I play with my friends, yes. And in a lot of for fun games, I think." She said. The other girls nodded in affirmation.

"It's kinda ruthless." He said, starting to catch his breath. She smiled evilly.

"Wait until you play killer croquet." She said, smirking.

* * *

><p>All of the girls who'd played football decided to join in the killer croquet as well. Natalie went back to get washed up, as did many of the guards. Elodie joined them, along with Jasey and Riley. The course was perfect. There was a stream that split, running through the middle and edge of the course. A lot of them looked at Summer.<p>

"So, killer croquet. It's pretty much the same as regular croquet, except for you can hit the ball with any part of your mallet." She said.

"Then why is it called killer croquet?" Jasey asked her. Summer smiled.

"Well, it's not so much about trying to win, as who you _don't _want to win." She said. The girls looked at each other. Anastasia looked at Elodie, grinning.

"Revenge!" She said. Elodie laughed.

"For what?" Asked Sally.

"Stealing a pastry from me at breakfast." She said, smiling. Sally laughed. Summer walked over to Noah.

"It's on." He said. She laughed.

It started nicely enough-Jasey, Noah, and Elodie all put their first shots through the first two wickets. Then it got interesting.

Anastasia practiced her swing a few times. Then she wound up and hit the ball hard. It went through the wickets, into the balls that were there. It hit them hard, and sent them scattering. They all groaned, while Anastasia giggled innocently.

"Oopsies." She said, not sounding remorseful at all.

Riley's ball went through, narrowly missing Anastasia's. Then went Sally's, the remaining guard, Kile, and then Imogen, who sent Kile's ball into the stream along with Elodie's. The came Summer. She looked at the balls, and decided to go for Sally's. She wound up and hit it, sending her ball rolling away, nudging Riley's to the side. All of them looked at their balls, strewn across the croquet lawn.

It continued. It became so that if there was a ball near you, you hit it, rather than going for a wicket. There was a funny moment where Imogen got her ball out of the stream, and then practically jumped three feet because of a small water snake.

By the end, nobody had won, but everyone was getting hungry. Everyone tromped back to the castle, and they all had a very casual dinner-the cooks had made spaghetti with meatballs, and nobody got changed out of what they were wearing into fancy dinner clothes. For dessert, they brought in more cake, Summer struggling to blow out all the candles on hers.

When she got to her room, she took a shower, washing all the dirt and sweat off, and changed into pajamas. Before she got into bed, she remembered the package Noah had given her. She opened it, and found a beautiful four leaf clover pendant, the four leaves of different gems-Aquamarine, Sapphire, Emerald, and Diamond, with a silvery-gold chain. Then she found another necklace, this one a nest of silver wire with three small yellow pearls clustered inside, with a silver chain. The last one she found was a bracelet, made of pearl, ruby, peridot, and sapphire. If described out loud to her, she probably wouldn't have though it would be pretty, but it was beautiful. This one had a note.

_Summer-_

_The four birthstones representing Summer are _

_Pear, Ruby, Peridot, and Sapphire, so I couldn't_

_help but think this was perfect for you_

_-Noah_

She smiled. He'd also included several bars of chocolate. She took a little bite out of one, savoring its flavor. Then she brushed her teeth, and went to sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Well, that chapter didn't really have anything important in it, but it was fun to write. So yeah.<strong>

**4Love4Love-Thanks! Here's football and killer croquet...a little less cute. Europe was awesome, and music and drama are awesome. All arts, really.**

**HestiaAbnegation11-Drama is awesome! I like it, but I'm super shy, so for me, it's not the best. And maybe she will be...And maybe she won't...**

**Fangirling is Life-Yeah, it does depend. They're all pretty great. Europe was super cool.**

**Alia Mehra-Thanks! The trip was awesome.**

**RQOTD-Would you rather eat a bar of soap or bottle of vinegar?**

**Vinegar. Soap is nasty.**


	30. Chapter 30

**This isn't an update, but I just wanted to let you guys know a few things.**

**I'm finally back again from my camp that doesn't allow electronics, and had an awesome time, and will now resume writing.**

**Over the next five weeks I will still be updating, but they may be a bit slow as I'll be in a full day circus camp for one week and a half day crew camp for a month.**

**Anyways, you guys probably don't care. But yeah.**


	31. Chapter 31

**Alright, so finally here's an update. Hope you guys enjoy.**

Thanks to** Fangirling is Life, Alia Mehra, HestiaAbnegation11, **and **4Love4Love **for being amazing reviewers!

* * *

><p>Noah's POV<p>

"The public wants another elimination." He said, pacing as he did when he was nervous or stressed.

"Well isn't that wonderful." Emmaline replied, without looking up. He sighed, exasperated, and glared at her.

"Okay okay okay." She said, still not looking up. He resumed pacing.

"When do you need an elimination by?" She asked.

"The end of the week, tops, but better in the next three days." She told her, running his hand through his hair.

"Did dad or mom say you need to do it?" She asked.

"Yeah. They both are willing to let me do pretty much whatever with the Selection so I can actually find a girl I'll be happy with, but they said that sometimes I just need to do what the public wants me to do and keep them happy." He said. She nodded, mulling this over.

"So who are you thinking of sending away?" She asked. He shrugged.

"I don't know." He said. She sighed, pondering this for a moment.

"Who do you want to _keep_?" She asked him. He listed several names off of girls he wanted to keep and girls he had to keep for a bit longer. Then there was a few girls he wasn't so sure he wanted to keep, but were friends with girls he definitely wanted to keep. Finally, he had one girl he had to send home.'

"Now you go see if she bites while I take a nap." Emmaline told him. Noah rolled his eyes.

"Wow, thanks for the faith in me." He said, walking out of the room.

* * *

><p>Anastasia's POV<p>

Anastasia tried her best not to fall asleep in Sylvia's class. They only had five more minutes. Some of the classes with history involved weren't actually so bad, but this one wasn't about history. This one was about silverware, and acceptable dinner table topics, and a bunch of other boring stuff. She was thoroughly over it.

Sylvia clapped her hands.

"So girls! In ten days we will be going out on various charitable expeditions for various causes! You will each choose which one you are going on, and since it's high time, and to decide the order, we will be having a test on everything we have learned!" She told them, smiling. There were many looks of dread exchanged.

"In order to assist you, I've prepared all of you a study guide. Go ahead and pick one up on your way out, if you want." She said. She pulled a stack of them out from under her desk.

"Class is dismissed." She said. Anastasia walked to the front of the room to grab one, along with many of the other girls. It didn't help her confidence. It was huge. It had so much in it-mostly etiquette and all sorts of the princess-in training type things Sylvia had taught them. She sighed mentally, knowing Sylvia would chide her on it. She envied Anaya, who was out on a date and missing the lesson. Every time someone was out on a date during a lesson, all the other girls envied them both for getting a date, and for missing a lesson.

Anastasia walked back to the Women's Room, skimming through the packet. Once she was there, she curled up in a chair and started to read it through thoroughly. This was not going to be a fun test.

* * *

><p>Grace's POV<p>

"Where's Anaya?" She asked quietly to Sally, who was sitting next to her. There was an empty spot where her place card was next to Grace, because the cards were moved around every day. They were more than halfway through dinner, so she definitely wasn't going to show up.

"Gone." She replied quietly.

"Gone?" She asked.

"Gone." Sally replied.

"How do we know? And why?" Grace asked.

"I heard it from Bethany, who saw her leaving. Nobody knows why." She said. Grace went back to her food. That was often how it was. A girl would leave, and everyone wanted to know why, but in the end, nobody actually knew why they'd left.

* * *

><p>Grace turned, startled, at a knock on her door. She went over to the door, still pulling pins out of her hair. She opened the door to see Noah standing behind it.<p>

"Hi." She said, somewhat startled.

"Hey. I was wondering if you wanted to head for a walk in the gardens?" He asked her.

"Sure. Let me just grab a pair of shoes that won't kill my feet." She replied, gesturing to the very high heels she wore that didn't even make her break 5'5. She went over to where she'd left a pair of flats that happened to go nicely with her dress, and pulled the remaining pins from her hair, dropping them into the jar where her maids kept all of the pins they used on her hair, which quite a bit fancier than the bobby pins she used for dance that she'd brought from home. She slipped the flats on and headed back out, closing the door softly behind her.

"Are you going to want a sweater or something? It's sort of cold." He said. She smiled.

"Are you kidding? The weather here is so warm! Back in Tammins, this weather would be like a heat wave!" She exclaimed. He smiled.

Once they were outside, Grace slipped off her flats and spun in a circle, looking at the sky.

"It's so pretty! And the grass is so soft!" She said, laughing softly.

"Do you know any constellations?" He asked her.

"Yes! I love stargazing! Especially during the Perseids." She told him. She turned her head up towards the sky. "Do you like stargazing?" She asked him. He nodded.

"The sky here is pretty obscured by all the light though, so you can't see nearly as much." He told her.

"Light pollution." She said.

"What?" He said.

"Light pollution. Sometimes people call it photopollution. It's the excessive , misdirected, or obtrusive use of artificial lights. If a star isn't bright enough, it won't show in the sky because of it. It's much worse in cities, but when you get outside of them, sometimes it'll get better." She told him.

"Huh. Where'd you learn about it? I've never heard of it." He said.

"I read about it in an old book." She said.

"Do you like reading?" He asked her. She looked at him like he was crazy.

"Of course I love reading! Who doesn't? Reading is amazing!" She exclaimed. Then she looked at him. "Do you like reading?" She asked him. Now it was his turn to look at her like she was the dumb one.

"Of course I do! What's your favorite book?" He asked.

"It's so hard, there's so many good ones. What's yours?" She asked him.

"Same. Too many." He told her.

One of the guards walked up and said something quietly into Noah's ear. He nodded, suddenly looking much less happy than he had a minute ago.

"We'll be there in a minute or two." He said. The guard nodded and walked inside. Noah turned around, suddenly seeming to have had a weight placed on his shoulders.

"What was that?" She asked.

"They want us to head in because of the attack on the palace. They think it's likely to happen again." He said. She looked at him.

"Who attacked the palace?" She asked. He sighed.

"Right now, we're thinking that it was probably people who supported my grandfather's reign, and don't like the changes that my parents are making." He said. She thought for a moment.

"So basically a bunch of crazy conservatives." She said. He looked at her, and nodded.

"I hadn't thought of it that way, but yes, effectively, that's what they are. Do you have any ideas for dealing with them?" He asked, hopefully but not expecting any. She smiled sadly.

"I wish I did, but I don't." She said, her flats now clicking on the marble now that they were inside.

"Good night, L-Grace." He said.

"Good night." She said. She walked back up to her room slightly flustered. Going into this, she didn't think she would like the Prince at all. But now, she knew she really liked him, she thought maybe as more than a friend. But she was confused, and didn't know how much, or how much more she might end up liking him. She sighed, changed into her pajamas, and went to sleep.

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><p><strong>Sorry for taking so long to update this, I had a case of writer's block. Hopefully it'll be gone by next chapter. But yeah. Hope you guys enjoyed!<strong>

**HestiaAbnegation11-Thanks!**

**4Love4Love-Thanks! I have!**

**RQOTD:Skittles or M&Ms?**

**M&Ms. I hate skittles, and I'm not crazy about M&Ms, but they're _waaaaaaaay _better than skittles to me.**


	32. Chapter 32

**Alright, so here's another chapter. I'm still having writer's block, but I remembered something. So here it is. **

**Thanks to **Alia Mehra, thirteenth7, **and **HestiaAbnegation11 **for being amazing reviewers!**

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><p>Grace's POV<p>

Grace thought about the questions Holly had asked her, visualizing the diagram she'd memorized in her head. All of the girls were studying nervously in anticipation for the test they were going to have later. All of them were anxious about it-they'd learned that it might have some bearing on the next elimination. Even the bitch crowd was studying hard-though separately from the rest of the girls, of course.

"The oyster fork is between the fish fork and the shrimp fork, and the red wine glass is to the right of the white wine and champagne glasses, which are lined up next to each other." She said. Holly nodded, without looking at the diagram. That was an area where she had excelled in terms of studying, where Grace was having a bit more trouble. Actually, Holly had excelled in all the areas. Grace had done pretty well, she thought-that was one of the only things she was struggling in, but was finally starting to get.

She thanked Holly for quizzing her, and went back to her study guide. There was a lot in there-most of it she knew, even though there was a lot of stuff that seemed pretty pointless to her, ranging from flower arrangements to Illea's relations with other countries to the proper language to use when drafting something up. She'd spent most of her time on it. She'd skipped out on dancing three of the days during the week so that she'd have more time to study. She wasn't sure if she was in love with Noah, but she knew she wanted to stay, and if she got kicked out, she definitely didn't want it to be over some test.

* * *

><p>Riley's POV<p>

Riley noticed many of the girls not eating much lunch, too nervous for their test to eat much. She didn't eat as much as she normally did, but she ate more than many of the other girls. She had less reason to be nervous than some of the girls-she'd learned a lot of this type of stuff in her diplomatic training. Maybe not flower arrangements, or different crowns to wear for different occasions, but many of the things she already knew before she even took Sylvia's lessons. Still, she was nervous. She knew that it had bearing on the next elimination, and that there probably weren't too many more single eliminations before the Elite were announced.

After lunch, all of the girls walked to the room where classes were held together, as they'd been instructed by Sylvia. Where there was normally quiet chatter mixed in with the sound of heels, there was only the sound of heels. Even Colette was quiet-everyone was too busy mentally reviewing everything they could to bother with their normal conversations.

When they walked into the room, they saw the desks had been arranged differently, with privacy screens on the desk so that nobody could cheat. She'd put out name cards, and everyone walked to their seat, silently. Sylvia walked to the front of the class, the tests cradled in one arm.

"Excellent! You will have two hours to complete the test. There will be one break if after one hour, during which time you may stand. You may not talk during this time, however, and you may not leave the room. There is water here so you will not have to leave the room to get any." She said, gesturing at a glass water dispenser with water, ice, and lemon. She looked around the room.

"Any questions?" She asked. Bethany raised her hand.

"Yes?" She asked.

"What if we don't finish in the two hours?" She asked.

"I will take the test from you no matter where you are in it, and the unfinished questions will be given zero points." She said. Surprised, gloomy glances were exchanged all over the room. Sylvia looked around.

"Any more questions?" She asked. Nobody raised their hands.

"Good. I will be expecting silence and good posture like we have practiced. I will make note if you have bad posture or are talking, and will take away points for those things. When I tell you to start, you may flip over your tests and start. From now on, I expect silence." She said, looking around the room significantly. With that, she started walking around the room, handing out tests, face down and pens.

"And...Begin." She said. Riley flipped over her test with the rest of the girls, the sound of rustling paper filling the room before it went dead silent again. She looked at the first question, all the way down to the tenth, which were on the first page, multiple choice. She was glad she'd studied.

* * *

><p>Lucinda's POV<p>

Lucinda rolled her eyes in annoyance. _Why_ did she have to do the stupid test? Sylvia should just realize that she was a well mannered two and excuse her from this. These were things she knew, but testing her on them was mean. She knew it, but putting it on a test, she couldn't do it-she just instinctively knew it. It was SO unfair. She sighed, flipping her hair over her shoulder. This wasn't going to be why she was eliminated. She was consoled by the fact some of the girls had studied much less than her-she'd put up a front of barely studying, while studying in her room and making her maids quiz her, and then stay up late to finish her dresses. It'd worked perfectly.

In the end, it was hard, but she was determined. She was going to do well on this thing. If she got second to last, it didn't matter, as long as she wasn't last.

* * *

><p>Anastasia's POV<p>

"Tests down." Came Sylvia's voice, ringing through the silent room. The rustling of papers once again filled the room. Anastasia took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She'd finished maybe five minutes before, and had been going through trying to make sure all of her answers were okay. She hoped they were.

"Everyone please bring your tests, with your name on it, up to the front of the room and give it to me with your pen, after which you may go." Sylvia announced. All of the girls stood up, stretching. More than one girl was stumbling around because of a foot that'd fallen asleep. She walked up to the front of the room, handed her test and pen in, and waited for some of the other girls to come out before heading to the Women's Room.

"That was awful!" Exclaimed Sally. All of the other girls, including Anastasia, exclaimed their agreement.

"I know right!"

"It was awful"

"What was the hardest part? It was the flowers and flower arrangements for me." Anastasia said.

"I know, right!" Agreed Shaylienne, "It was so hard. I'm glad it's over now." She said.

"The test is, but the nervousness isn't. We still have to wait until tomorrow to get our scores." Said one of the girls.

* * *

><p><strong>So there's another chapter, hope you guys enjoy! Sorry I've been taking forever to update!<strong>

**HestiaAbnegation11-Thanks! They'll be coming soon**

**Alia Mehra-Thanks! I'll try, but I'm pretty busy**

**thirteenth7-Thanks! Skittles do tend to do that.**

**RQOTD-If you had to go without candy or fruit (excluding chocolate, chocolate is its own separate category,) which one would you choose to keep?**

**Fruit. My life is nothing without peaches and strawberry gelato.**


	33. Chapter 33

**So. I rewrote this chapter approximately four times before this. All four times, it was absolute shit, and this isn't amazing, but that's part of why it took me so long to write this. Sorry about that.**

**Also, if you're reading, particularly if you have a character in it, review! It tells me that there's still a reason I'm writing this!**

**Thanks to **Dolphinsplash12, HestiaAbnegation11, **and **thirteenth7 **for being amazing reviewers!**

* * *

><p>Summer's POV<p>

Summer picked at her waffle with a fork, too nervous to eat. The girls around her were silent, and nobody was eating much. Everyone was too nervous, because they knew they were getting their tests back today. Nobody was talking, and the room, normally full of quiet chatter, was silent. It wasn't helping the nervous mood. She sighed, took a bite of her waffle, and moved the fruits on her plate around. She knew in her head she should eat, but her body was telling her something very different from her mind, and the message was most definitely _not _to eat.

Finally, the meal finished, after what seemed like an agonizing eternity. The silence hadn't helped it pass either. All of their chairs scraped back, and the girls all filed out of the room, and headed towards the classroom.

Sylvia was already inside, with name cards on all of the desks.

"Girls, please go to the desk with your name on it, which is the desk with your test." She said to all of them. The girls walked around, looking for their name card. It didn't take too long-soon all of the girls were seated at a desk, looking at Sylvia expectantly.

"And you may now look at your score." She said. Dread filled Summer, and she flipped it over.

She closed her eyes, nervous-she was certain she'd done badly. She opened them and looked at the score-96%. She smiled. She'd done it! Then she had another thought-what if all the other girls did better? What if 96% was the worst score? She looked around, anxious. She put on a neutral face, hoping not to give any emotions away. Around the room, she saw girls doing the same, and wondered how they'd done on the test.

"Now girls, I know some of you are probably wondering how you'll know how you've done relative to the other girls. So, to help you, I've created a ranked list from best to worst with your name and score. She pulled down the piece of paper that was covering the board, and sure enough, Summer saw a list. She looked at the bottom of the list and breathed out an audible sigh of relief. It wasn't her.

She kept going up the list from the bottom, not finding her name. Finally, she found it, fourth from top. She smiled. She'd done it! She'd actually done well. She looked at the names above her. Grace had gotten first, Shaylienne second and, to her horror, _Lucinda_ had placed third and above her. It was only by not even a half percent, but she was disgusted in herself for not doing better than Lucinda. Lucinda. How had she let _that_ happen?

* * *

><p>Grace's POV<p>

Grace looked at the list Sylvia had posted. She saw the top of the list, and smiled. She'd come in first! She'd gotten a 99.2, and had come in first. She looked at the bottom of the list, wondering who would most likely be eliminated because of the test. She looked at the bottom of the list, and the joy she'd just been feeling at winning melted away. It was Anastasia. She looked over to the bubbly girl, and saw her shocked expression. As girls filed out of the room, Anastasia didn't move, so Grace stayed behind to see if there was anything she could do for her friend. Once everyone had left the room, she walked over to her.

"Hey." She said softly. Anastasia took her face out of her hands.

"Hi." She said sadly, dropping her head back into her hands.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" She asked. Anastasia shook her head. They sat there in silence for a moment. Then Anastasia started talking.

"I've never been good at taking tests. Even if I know everything super well, I test super badly. And now because I came in last place, I'm going to be eliminated and then I'll have to leave and go home." She said.

"They never explicitly said that the worst score was going home, just that the score would effect the next elimination." Grace said lamely in an effort to comfort her.

Anastasia shook her head. Grace sat there for a moment. Then she had an idea.

"Is there anything that can make you feel better?" She asked. Anastasia shook her head.

"Not even chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate cake?" She asked hopefully. Anastasia looked at her.

"But you can't get that around here unless they serve it at a meal." She replied. Grace smiled slyly.

"Where? How do you know about it?" She asked Grace, who started laughing softly.

"I have my ways. You'll see where it is. Come on." She said, grabbing Anastasia's hand and pulling it. Then she slipped. She looked at her shoes and started laughing.

"Goddamn it! Heels are terrible!" She yelled. She took them off, carrying them in one hand, and dragging a laughing Anastasia in the other. Once Anastasia had recovered from her laughing, she stood up.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"Follow me!" Grace said.

* * *

><p>"Hurry up!" Grace called to Anastasia, waiting for her at a corner.<p>

"These shoes aren't made for running, you know." She said. Grace held up her own shoes, which were in her hand. Anastasia nodded, and took off her own shoes. Grace took off again, leading Anastasia through the palace, her evergreen fairy-like dress swirling around her as she slid on the marble and turned corners, and fluttering as she ran.

Then she stopped abruptly. She listened closely, and heard the distant sound of clicking heels. She determined they were going away from them, and kept on going. As she turned another corner, she stopped abruptly to keep from running into Lucinda, who looked at the two disdainfully.

"Well well well look at that. The girl who failed is showing her knowledge by running around the palace barefoot." She smiled meanly, and Anastasia's face crumpled a little. Then she turned her gaze to Grace, looking down on the much smaller girl. Grace stared right back up at her, challenging her with her eyes.

"And you. I'd have thought you would have known better, but I guess you were a six, after all..." She trailed off, smirking. Grace balled and unballed her fists, holding an arm up to block Anastasia from attacking her. She was already on precarious ground.

"Oh shut up Lucinda. It's not like you would have done well without cheating off my test." She retorted. Lucinda's jaw dropped open, and Grace had to hide her amazement. That had been a wild stab, but now she could see it was true. Excellent. Now she had the upper hand.

"How did you know about that?" She asked angrily, looking ready to murder Grace. Grace eyed her nails, making a note that if they did get into a fight, that she should be careful of them.

"Paying people to compliment you on everything and say you're good at it doesn't mean you are. You're obvious, and it was easy to tell." She lied smoothly.

"But.." She said, her face clouded with rage.

"I would recommend you're nice to me and my friends from now on, unless you'd like other people to hear about this. And I'm sure Noah wouldn't like to hear that you've been cheating." She said in a false sweet voice, followed by a false sweet smile. She turned away theatrically, and then spun around perfectly.

"Bye." She said, giving a cutesy wave, leaving Lucinda standing there, now her fists the ones balling and unballing.

* * *

><p>Anastasia's POV<p>

"Why didn't you tell Sylvia she cheated?" Anastasia asked, incredulous, once they were out of earshot.

"Because I didn't know. It was a guess, because after the insults I needed something to reply with." She said. Anastasia nodded.

"Are you going to tell Sylvia now?" She asked.

"No. It wouldn't effect it too much, probably, because it can't be taken away unfinished, which is probably what would have happened. It's better to have blackmail at this point." Grace replied. Anastasia nodded. It made sense to her, for the most part. Although.

"Why do you want blackmail so bad more than just getting her in trouble right now?" She asked.

"Well, there's a more prolonged effect from this. Plus, I have some...issues with her." She said, rubbing her shoulder.

"Don't we all." Said Anastasia.

"No, I mean, like, extra issues with me and her." She said.

"Like what?" Asked Anastasia curiously. It was true there was extra friction between her and Grace, but that probably wasn't it if she was saying extra issues, because all of the girls had friction with Lucinda.

"Well, you know how I used to wear strapless dresses?" Grace asked.

"Yeah. Why'd you stop? You look great in them." Said Anastasia.

"Thanks." She said smiling. Then, "A few days ago there was pieces of glass and sharp stuff in my bed, and I didn't see them because I was tired and they were the same color as my sheets. I laid down, and they cut up my shoulder. I missed breakfast and the Women's Room that day because the doctor was stitching up my shoulder and cleaning it up." She said. Anastasia raised her eyebrows, her jaw dropping.

"Oh my god! Why didn't you tell? Is that all?" She asked, horrified. Grace smirked darkly.

"She wants to break me, for me to tell or go home or something, and I won't give her that. And I have no proof it was her, so telling is pointless, because it's just speculation. And no, that's not all." She said.

"What else has she done?"Anastasia asked.

"Well, you know the dress I wore for the Interviews on the Report?" She asked.

"Yeah! It was so pretty! Your maids are awesome." She said. Grace smiled.

"Well, that was supposed to be for the first Report. For the Interviews they were making me a different dress, which now they're saving for a big occasion. I haven't seen it yet. But either way, that dress mysteriously developed rips in it, and my maids had to work all day finishing a different dress because they knew that one wouldn't be fixable in the time they had. And somehow, I don't think a dress in a dress bag usually has its sleeves and skirts and chest all cut up." She said. Anastasia's mouth dropped.

"Oh my god." She said. Grace nodded.

"So yeah. I figured a little blackmail really wouldn't hurt me." She said. Anastasia nodded. Grace looked around.

"We're almost there." Grace said.

"Where?" Anastasia asked.

"Here!" Said Grace, pushing open a door.

* * *

><p><strong>Alright, so they're going somewhere...<strong>

**Hope you guys liked this chapter!**

**HestiaAbnegation11-Yes! Watermelon is amazing! I haven't quite figured out what's going to happen with that yet, but I'll do what I can.**

**Dolphinsplash12-Thanks! Candy is nice, but fruit is, like, WAAAAY better. I totally agree.**

**thirteenth7-There is that too. Plus fruit is delicious. **

**RQOTD-Who's your favorite character (barring that, top three), from Harry Potter?  
>Hermione, obviously.<strong>

**Followed by Bellatrix and Luna.**


	34. Chapter 34

**Okay, so here's the next chapter. Hope you guys enjoy it. **

**Thanks to **Alia Mehra, thirteenth17, HestiaAbnegation11, **and **4Love4Love(x2). **You guys rock!**

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><p>Noah's POV<p>

Noah looked at the paper, scanning it, and sighed. He put it down, and ran his fingers through his hair. He looked at it again, and sighed.

His dad had suggested doing it. Actually, it was a pretty good idea. He hadn't know who to eliminate, and so his dad had suggested the test. He had agreed. His mom had given them a raised eyebrow and a side eye, but hadn't said anything more other than a few pursing of her lips when it was brought up. He was most likely going to eliminate the worst scoring girl, or one of the worst scoring three. He looked at the worst scoring girl. And it was...

Anastasia.

He sighed. He didn't know if he would ever love Anastasia, or if he did, more than the other girls, but he definitely liked her and wanted to keep her. He wasn't eliminating her. He looked at the next two up from her, hoping it would be Colette and Lucinda. No such luck. It was Jacey, and then Danisha. He bit his lip, thinking. He hadn't really gone out with Danisha much, and from what he remembered of their few dates, she wasn't particularly remarkable or memorable to him. And Jacey...

His relationship with her felt one sided. She seemed to love him, but he wasn't so sure he returned the feeling. He made up his mind. He would eliminate her. Then he looked at the top of the list.

He was dissapointed that Lucinda had such a high score, but also saw Summer had a very high score, along with Grace and Shaylienne. He sighed. It could have been worse. He stood up. Now he had to go find Jacey.

* * *

><p>Anastasia's POV<p>

Anastasia's jaw dropped as Grace pushed open the door. It lead into the kitchens, warm, with the aroma of bread and something savory cooking. She looked at Grace.

"How did you know about this?" She asked.

"Noah took me here when we were on a date." Grace said, smiling and shrugging.

"Why?" She asked.

"Well, I was super hungry because I'd done a workout pretty close to our date, and so I was starving, and I remarked on it, and we ended up spending a bunch of our date helping the bakers make different types of cookies and then eating some of them. And they had a bunch of leftover cakes that we helped decorate and eat some of." She said. Anastasia smiled. Grace waved to someone she recognized as they walked through the kitchens, their dresses contrasting to the aprons and casual clothes of those working in the kitchens.

Anastasia followed Grace as she took a few turns, and then pushed open a door. The scent of baking things hit Anastasia, and she inhaled.

"Welcome to the bakery. And dessert place. I totally just ruined that, but whatever!" Grace said, smiling. Anastasia laughed, and walked in.

Inside, there was people kneading dough, mixing bowls, and peering at various things in ovens and on stoves. One of the cooks spotted them, and walked over.

"Hi honey!" She said, embracing Grace. She looked at Anastasia.

"This is my friend Anastasia. I was wondering if there's anything with chocolate in it she can eat?" Grace asked.

"Oh sure, here, follow me." She said. Anastasia looked at her.

"That's Alena. She helped us out when I was in here last time. She's super nice." Grace said. Anastasia nodded.

"Bad day?" She asked.

"Yeah. I failed a test, so I'll probably be eliminated." Anastasia said, not bothering to sugarcoat or hide the fact of the matter. She nodded, grabbing a tray.

"Well, here's some brownies for you two, and if you head over to Devin and ask him for some, I'll bet he'll give you some of the chocolate fondue and strawberries." She said.

"Thank you." Anastasia said, smiling.

"Oh, it's nothing honey." She said. She looked at one of the ovens.

"I gotta get back to work, but you girls feel free to come down here anytime." She said.  
>"Thanks Alena." Grace said. Sarah smiled back, and hustled over to one of the ovens.<p>

"Which one is Devin?" She asked. Grace looked at her.

"He couldn't be the one with the chocolate fondue and fruit right over there, could he be now." Grace said sarcastically. Anastasia smiled at her friend's sarcasm. They walked on over.

* * *

><p>Grace's POV<p>

Grace balanced her paper plates carefully. As they'd left the kitchens, people had given them various things-cookies, fruit, cake, pastries, until both of them had two heaping paper plates full of food. Since neither of them could eat it, as they only had two hands, both with full plates, they'd decided to go back to the Women's Room. Grace looked at her foot, and pushed open the door with it.

As they walked in, several mouths dropped as they walked in with heaping plates of food, sitting in a pair of chairs with a table between them. The plates barely fit.

"No fair!" One girl exclaimed.

"Where'd you get the food?" Riley asked.

"The kitchens." Replied Anastasia. Several mouths dropped. Grace took a bite of a brownie, her eyes widening. Once she'd swallowed, she looked at Anastasia.

"Try the brownies." She said.

"But that's so improper!" Exclaimed Bethany, from the corner the Witches, as the other girls had taken to calling them, or something that rhymed with it, were in.

"Plus, all that food will make you fat."Said Colette, disgustedly. Lucinda watched like a cat who'd caught a mouse. Grace turned around, annoyed.

"One:if you'd tasted these browines, you wouldn't care what was improper, except, oh wait, you're too worried about being fat to eat brownies. Two:I don't think I need to worry about being fat, given I can count my ribs and my elbow is easily the thickest part of my arm. And three:In case you're wondering, this is what I look like when I don't give a fuck what you have to say." She said, cocking her head to one side, staring at them for a second, and then looking back to her plate of food.

"So, where are the kitchens?" Summer asked, with perfect timing.

* * *

><p>Noah's POV<p>

Noah looked at Jacey. She'd been talking for a while, describing her life back home because he'd asked about it. It felt forced, like she was trying too hard for him. He decided to end it.

"So, Jacey, I have something I need to say to you." He said, putting his hand into his pocket. Her face lit up. No doubt she thought he was going to profess his love for her, or propose. He wasn't even to the Elite! He hadn't even kissed her! He hadn't even kissed any of the girls! Definitely not to professing love or proposing marriage yet! He took a breath.

"I'm sending you home." He said. Her face fell, her mouth falling open.

"But...but...I didn't even get the lowest score! Anastasia did! She should be the one being sent home! The lowest score was supposed to be sent home!" She cried out.

"No, the score just influenced the next elimination." He said. _Shit, _he thought. _That's how they interpreted that?_

"But...but." She said. Her eyes were starting to glisten with tears, and the shock was fading to anger.

"You'll leave this evening. You may take whatever dresses you would like with you, and your family will receive compensation for this week." He said, starting at the ground. The last part he hadn't expected to say, but he knew she was a six. He knew that though they managed, making ends meet for her family was a struggle.

"Okay." She said. She turned on her heels and left the gardens, presumably to start packing. Noah took a deep breath. He hoped eliminating Lucinda and Colette would be that easy.

* * *

><p><strong>Foreshadowing? Maaaaybeeee...<strong>

**Alia Mehra-Thanks! I'm actually not that patient, but I refuse to just leave it unfinished and sitting there, so...**

**thirteenth17-Hermione forever. Thanks! I like both of them too.**

**HestiaAbnegation11-Tonks is pretty awesome too, as is Mrs. Weasely.**

**4Love4Love-Vacation is so definitely an excuse! I'm like that too on vacations. And no, I didn't eliminate her because I just couldn't do it, but I love Lucinda in a different way-like the way I love Voldemort. Plus I can't eliminate my main antagonist. Hermione is pretty awesome, and I like book Ginny, but not movie Ginny. And Harry-eh. He's fine, but I like a bunch of the other characters better.**

**RQOTD-Are you worse at makeup or drawing.**

**Well, this is a funny one for me. Because I'm relatively good at makeup (even though I don't apply it very much), but I'm really good at drawing, so I'm worse at makeup. Although the drawing may be part of why I'm so good at makeup.**


	35. Chapter 35

**Alright, so here's the next chapter.**

**Also, I just want to say that as school approaches that I might not update as much (not that I do that that much anyways), but my schedule will just explode-this week it's starting-I have two hours of crew in the mornings and volleyball practice in the afternoon. Once school starts, I'll also have school, plus circus, where I need to prepare for a performance. So yeah. Craziness.**

**Thanks to **Alia Sharma, thirteenth17, HestiaAbnegation11, **and **4Love4Love **for being the most amazing reviewers I could ask for!**

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><p>Summer's POV<p>

Summer heard a knock on her door. She was too lazy to get up from the chair she was sitting in, reading, so she simply called "Come in."

The door opened, and Noah came in. Some of the other girls might have been embarrassed that they were in their pajamas in front of him, their hair in a messy ponytail, but she wasn't exactly romantically involved with him-she was just a friend, so she didn't really care.

"What is it?" She asked, putting her book on a small table next to the chair.

"Nice room color. Did you have it repainted?" He asked. She sighed.

"Thanks. I did. It was a hideous shade of green. And you're deflecting my question." She said, raising one eyebrow expertly. He smiled.

"Didn't miss that, did you?" He asked. Now she smiled, looking expectantly.

"So it's two things. Well, actually, four. Wait, no three." She laughed. He rolled his eyes.

"What are they?" She asked.

"Well, one is that tomorrow I have a free day, and so I'm going to take someone on a date-" Summer cut him off.

"And you want me to tell you who?" She asked. He looked at her, surprised.

"Actually, that's not a terrible idea. What I was wondering is if you wanted to hang out for part of the day, because It'd be kinda nice to hang out with a girl who I'm not actually dating." He said. She smiled again.

"Sure." She said. She looked at him. He sat in the chair across from her.

"What's the second thing?" She asked.

"So, I was thinking of taking someone on a date tonight to the roof. What's your opinion on who I should take?" He asked her. She thought for a minute.

"I'd say Anastasia or Grace." She said, after thinking. He nodded.

"And my last question:do you think I should kiss any of the girls soon?" He asked. She burst out laughing, rolling around in her chair. He rolled his eyes again, sighing. Once she'd recovered, she responded seriously.

"I mean, if you want to and feel like your relationship is there, then sure." She said. He nodded, turning to leave.

"Wait." She said. He turned around.

"Where should I meet you and where are we going tomorrow and at like what time?" She asked. He bit his lip.

"Well, I'm thinking an after breakfast date, so I'd say probably anywhere from nine to eleven. Maybe here I can find you?" He asked. She shrugged.

"Sure. Have a good date with...whoever." She said, because she didn't know. He smiled.

"Will you be asleep later?" He asked.

"I don't know, maybe. Like how much later?" She asked.

"An hour or two, maybe." He said.

"Um, I dunno. Just knock, and if there's no answer, I'm probably asleep, and if you hear something thrown at the door, you just woke me up." She said. He raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Um, okay then. I'll either see you later or tomorrow." He said. He walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

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><p>Grace's POV<p>

Grace stood, hearing a knock on her door. She took the last three pins out of her hair, and sighed. No pins plus no makeup plus no fancy dress felt like heaven. She liked the dresses, to be sure, but sometimes it was nice to just wear something comfortable like her favorite sweatpants and tank top. She turned around, and sa

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><p>w Noah.<p>

"Oh. Hi. Sorry. I was just taking pins out of my hair." She said. He smiled.

"Do you want to head up to the roof?" He asked her.

"Sure. Let me just grab a sweater and shoes." She said. She walked over to her closet, grabbing a pair of gold snakeskin-y flats and a loose olive green cotton sweatshirt. She put the flats on and slipped the sweatshirt over her head, grabbing a hair tie from a table and quickly braiding her hair in a loose side braid.

"Okay." She said. They walked out the door, closing it behind them.

"How do you do that so fast?" He asked. She looked at him.

"Do what fast?" She asked.

"Get ready. Like, shoes, sweater, hair. A lot of girls take forever." He said. She shrugged.

"I'm pretty decisive about what to wear, and don't usually take forever choosing. And dance has made me pretty fast at doing my hair." She said. He nodded.

"How often do you dance here?" He asked.

"I try to every day, but it doesn't always work. If I don't do it before breakfast, it's not a guarantee, so I try to get about an hour and a half to two hours before breakfast." She said. Noah was silent for a moment before he realized what that meant.

"Wait, you wake up that early?" He asked. She looked at him.

"Yeah." She said, smiling.

"Like, without an alarm?" He asked, incredulous.

"Yeah." She said, drawing out the word a little. He shook his head, laughing.

"When do you get up?" She asked, a smile on her face.

"Like, as late as I can." He said. She shook her head.

"Do you drink coffee if you get up that early?" He asked.

"No. I drink tea. Coffee has too much of a crash. I only drink it at home during the Winter." She said.

"Why the Winter?" He asked.

"Because it's, like, super gray and dark, and it makes me super tired. Although that could just be because I get sick, but even when I'm not sick, I usually am tired during the Winter." She said.

"Are you sick a lot during the Winter?" He asked. She nodded.

"I get pneumonia and bronchitis a lot. I have a couch potato immune system." She said matter-of-factly. He smiled.

"What?" She asked.

"I've just never heard anyone refer to their immune system as a couch potato." He said, smiling. He pushed open a door.

"Here's the roof." He said. They climbed up a set of stairs, and then arrived at a huge rooftop patio, complete with some tables, chairs, plants, a hot tub, and even a pool. There was also a large open space, where they were. There was glass going around the edge acting as both a barrier and a bit of a windbreak. Even with that, Grace hugged her sweatshirt a bit closer. Though a warm night, the wind ripped at her hair and made it much cooler. She ran to the edge, standing on tiptoe, looking out at the shimmering lights of the city, lit up against the darkening blue of the sky, with a smattering of stars mixed in. Noah caught up with her after a moment.

"It's beautiful!" She exclaimed, turning towards him. He smiled.

"It's one of my favorite parts of the palace." He said. He leaned his elbows on the wood running on the top of the glass, both of them staring out at the city in silence, the wind ripping at them. Then he looked at her.

"Here, follow me. There's something really cool up here." He said. She followed him as he headed over to the little small flat roofed pavilion near the pool and the edge of the roof. He looked at her.

"Are you afraid of heights?" He asked. She smiled.

"No." She said.

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><p>Grace looked out from the roof of the pavilion.<p>

"This is incredible." She said, sitting down. She took off her flats before dangling her feet over the edge, not wanting them to fall off. Noah followed suit, sitting next to her.

"Yeah. I love looking out at the lights. On Holidays where there's fireworks, it's especially pretty, because you'll see fireworks all over the city. The best ones are usually there." He said, pointing at a spot.

"You like fireworks, then?" She asked.

"Yeah. Do you?" He asked.

"Yeah. They're really pretty and fun to watch, but my favorite thing is lighting the super big ones." She said, smiling.

"I've never gotten to light fireworks." He said.

"That makes sense, but it's kinda sad. They make such a big boom!" She said. Both of them smiled.

"I don't think I've ever heard a girl say they like fireworks because of the boom they make." He said, still smiling.

"I'm not exactly most girls." She snorted. He looked at her.

"No, you aren't." He said seriously. She looked up at him. He leaned in, and their lips touched. Both of their eyes closed, and their noses brushed against each other lightly.

They both pulled away at the same time. It was short, but sweet. They both looked out at the shimmering lights of the city in contented silence. Grace leaned her head against Noah's shoulder. Since he didn't pull it away, she assumed he didn't mind.

Finally, Noah looked at his watch.

"Shit!" He exclaimed.

"What?" She asked, grabbing her flats and putting them on. She stood up, as did he, going over to the ladder at the edge of the pavilion. He climbed down it quickly.

"We only have a few minutes before they lock the door to the roof." He explained. Grace took off her flats, holding them in one hand as she climbed down the ladder. She followed them as he ran back down the stairwell and to the glass door. He saw a guard walking away. He knocked on it. The guard turned around, and saw him. Rolled his eyes, but walked back to the door. He couldn't exactly just leave one of the Selected and the Prince out on the roof without consequences.

He opened the door, and they walked inside. It was much warmer inside, without the wind whipping at her. The guard locked it again, and hurried ahead of them.

"I thought princes weren't supposed to swear." She teased. He smiled.

"I thought girls weren't." He countered. She smiled.

They walked back to her room.

"Good night." He said.

"Night." She said, stepping into her room.

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><p>Noah's POV<p>

Noah knocked on Summer's door. A moment later, he heard something hit the door. He backed away.

"Come in." A groggy voice said from behind the door. He opened the door, and found Summer sitting up in her bed, turning on a lamp next to her bed. He shut the door.

"So?" She asked expectantly.

"So what?" He asked innocently. She raised her eyebrows.

"You woke me up, I assume for a reason. Spill." She said.

"I went up to the roof with Grace." He said.

"And?" She asked, smiling hopefully.

"We kissed." He admitted.

"That's great!" Summer exclaimed, smiling. "How was it?" She asked."

"Nice." He said.

"Grace is super nice. And I think she likes you." She said. Then she covered her mouth with her hand.

"Don't tell her I said that." She said. Noah rolled his eyes.

"It was weird, because I realized I've never seen any of you guys in normal clothes except you." He said. She laughed.

"What makes you think of that?" She asked him.

"She was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt." He said. She nodded. They sat in silence for a moment.

"Okay. Shoo. I need to sleep." She announced. He smiled and got up from the chair he'd been sitting in, and headed towards the door.

"Wait." Summer said. He turned.

"Can you bring me my pillow that I threw?" She asked. He smiled, brought it to her, and left. He closed the door behind him as he left, and walked back to his room, smiling at the memory of the kiss.

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><p><strong>Okay! I hope you guys liked that chapter! It was kinda hard to write, because I've never actually been in a relationship, much less kissed someone. So yeah. But hope you guys liked it.<strong>

**AliaMehra-No, she's still there, I just haven't really found a place to put her. **

**RQOTD-If you were a Game of Thrones character, who would you be?**

**Daenerys. So, you know, the MOTHER OF DRAGONS.**


	36. Chapter 36

**I've noticed that pretty much nobody is reviewing anymore. Which brings me to the question:Is anyone reading, and should I keep writing this?**


	37. Chapter 37

**I'm so sorry about the long delay between updates guys! I'll try to do it faster next time, but I'm super busy now that school's started.**

**Thanks to** HestiaAbnegation11, Alia Mehra, **and **4Love4Love** for being great reviewers!**

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><p>Colette's POV<p>

Colette looked on with murderous thoughts, though a pleasant enough expression, as Sally chatted with Noah on the set. If rumors were correct, she had kissed him, and wasn't the only girl to have done so. To make matters worse, she looked stunning in the outfit that all of them were wearing-a dark blue knee length sleeveless lace dress with a boat neck and strappy gold heels. She looked on, her face neutral, using her peripheral vision to look at the girls around her. Lucinda's face was neutral, as was Bethany's. She knew neither of them was happy by the fact their slight smiles had a pasted on quality.

As she looked around, she saw some of the girls nibbling on little snacks. _Idiots, _she thought. _You might not look as thin in the pictures._

Her name was called. She made her smile a little bigger, and made an effort to give it a less pasted on quality.

"Your highness." She said once she was next to him. He nodded at her. She thought for a moment, thinking of how many of the girls who hadn't been on tons of dates had tried to make their time last longer, clinging. She also knew if she did that, she wouldn't be memorable. She knew how photo shoots were-she'd done enough of them. She put an arm around him, turning towards the cameras.

"Smile." She said, her own already on. He did. The cameras flashed several times.

She moved so she was facing him, their faces close. The cameras continued flashing. Then she linked her arm through his, and turned so that they were at an angle, and the lighting would be more flattering. Cameras flashed.

"Thank you Lady Colette." He said, smiling. She smiled back, and walked off to where she'd been standing before.

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><p>Anastasia's POV<p>

Anastasia looked around. It was strange seeing everyone in the same dress. For some people, like Holly, it was similar to the dresses they usually wore, but for the rest, it was odd. Some girls, the style was just weird to see them wearing, for others the color or the lace, and others the lack of accessories. She liked the dress though. It was simple, but pretty, and looked good on everybody.

She watched as Colette did her photos, trying to smother a smile. She walked back to where she'd been standing, and Holly's name was called.

Then the alarm blared. All of the girls looked around, confused. Then they realized what was happening. The camera crews who were photographing still looked confused. The noise level in the room was rising rapidly, as well as the confusion and panic. She remembered the last time the rebels had attacked, and the safe room they'd gone to, and knew she needed to go back down there. The Selected were all in one big group at one point, she neither in the middle or the back, moving towards the door much more quickly than they usually walked. They barged through the throng of people, some of them moving aside for the Selected, and other times using the fact that they had a large group. For once she was thankful for Lucinda and Colette, who were masters at getting people to move.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, but was probably not that long, she knew, they were into the hallway. It was eerily deserted, save for the guards that were rushing towards the fighting. She marveled at the courage it must take to run towards danger, rather than away.

"How do we get to the room?" She heard someone ask.

"I remember." She heard Holly say quietly behind her. All of the girls turned towards her, looking at her, and then parted so that she could get to the front of the group.

"Lead on." Said Danisha.

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><p>Riley's POV<p>

Riley looked around the room, exhausted. Holly had led them to the room, her memory of the way there flawless. A guard had noticed them, and escorted them down and opened the door to them.

She saw that many of the girls were sleeping. She could hear low murmurs through the closed door where the royals and the advisers were, but couldn't make out the words being said. She looked back at the sleeping girls around her, and closed her own eyes to no avail. She sighed quietly, and sat up, looking around the room. She hated not knowing what was going on, not knowing how long she would be in the room. The sounds of fighting couldn't be heard in the room, as it was soundproof, so she couldn't even gauge how far away the fighting was. She looked at the door again, a sliver of light visible through the crack underneath. She wanted to know what was being said, but at the same time, she didn't dare to go listen at the door. She lay back down, closed her eyes, and somehow drifted off into sleep.

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><p>Summer's POV<p>

Summer woke up to someone shaking her awake. She looked at the person, and saw it was Riley.

"What?" She asked sleepily.

"The attack's over. We're supposed to wake up the other girls and go up to breakfast." Riley told her. She sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. She put on her shoes, and went around shaking the shoulders of the girls around her. Soon, everyone was up and walking out of the safe room together.

At first, nothing seemed wrong, climbing the stairs from the safe room, and going up. But after a certain point, they could see where the fighting had been-bits of broken things, bullet holes. Smears of blood. They saw a few dead guards, still holding their guns, their uniform splotched with almost a flower of blood where a bullet had pierced their body. As they turned into a big grand open room on the way to the breakfast rooms, they saw even more bodies. Someone gasped. Everyone turned towards the gasp, and they saw it. The white wall had letters, differing from about 1 and a half to two feet tall, written in the red color of blood.

_Long live the Loyalists,_ it read. Summer looked away, feeling nauseated. It was most clearly not paint. She continued on with the other girls, both trying not to look at what was around her, but also wanting to force herself to know what had been sacrificed for the safety of her and the other girls.

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><p>Grace's POV<p>

Grace nibbled on a pastry. She noticed she wasn't the only one without an appetite. The room was almost silent, and few people were eating much, including the royal family. Many of the girls were just nibbling at something or sipping at a drink, still too stressed to do much else. The meal seemed to both take forever to pass, while also seeming to speed by. Finally, Noah stood up, clearing his throat. All of the girls looked at him expectantly.

"Ladies." He said, not too loudly which in the quiet room was heard easily. Everyone who hadn't been looking at him before turned their heads, their attention on him.

"I have made a decision." He said. The girls kept looking at him in rapt attention.

"This attack has made me question whether I should be keeping you here if I don't think I have a future with you." He said. Girls around the room exchanged looks, confused. Grace looked around, bewildered. Noah took a breath.

"And this has lead me to a conclusion." He said. the murmuring died down, the girls all looking at him. Grace watched him, not sure what he was about to say.

"I'm narrowing it down to the Elite." He said.

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><p><strong>Dun dun dun.<strong>

**Anyways. Sorry about the long break. Hope you guys liked that chapter. Who do you think will make the Elite?**


	38. Chapter 38

**Alright guys, this isn't an update, but I was just going to say I've put a poll up on my profile, so please check it out and vote!**


	39. Chapter 39

**Okay, so bit of a longer A/N than usual. I'm sorry about the super long delay between the chapters lately. I'll try and work on it, but I've been super busy-I have both circus and volleyball, plus I have a huge school project starting-I'm designing and creating clothes for mine, which I love, but also takes up a ton of time. So I'm really sorry about the delay between chapters.**

**Also, this scene is very similar to the one from the Elite. **

**Thanks to **4Love4Love, HestiaAbnegation11, **and** GodessofDestiny97** for being amazing reviewers! Special thanks to **GodessofDestiny97 **for suggesting the poll!**

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><p>Noah's POV<p>

Noah waited a moment as chatter rose. He cleared his throat, and it all died down, the room completely silent.

"If I call your name, you will be staying. To the rest of you, I'm very sorry, but now that the danger here has been highlighted, I can't keep you here if I don't think I have a future with you." _Or if the advisors don't think you have enough value,_ he thought. He looked at his list. Most of the girls were his, but a few were the advisors as well. They all had a number, by which they'd made it into the Elite. He started from the bottom.

"Lady Jessamine." He said. He saw her smile.

"Lady Colette." He saw her smirk.

"Lady Holly."

"Lady Riley."

"Lady Lucinda." He saw no change in the self-assured expression she wore.

"Lady Anastasia."

"Lady Shaylienne."

"Lady Sally."

"Lady Grace." He saw her relax, and the other girls becoming increasingly tense. There was one spot left, and he was pretty sure most of them wanted it.

"Lady Summer."

"To the rest of you, I'm very sorry. If you need to talk to me, any of you, I'll be in the Gardens." He said. He walked out of the room as quickly as he could, hearing some of the girls already breaking down.

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><p>Noah looked up as he heard footsteps approaching. He wasn't surprised. He saw several girls at the door. He looked at them.<p>

"Ladies, if I could talk to you individually please." He said, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot. He watched, and saw a blonde head detach from the group, and walked towards him. He recognized it as Summer, and was surprised. He started slowly walking away from her, and she joined him. Once they were out of earshot, she began talking.

"Why did you keep me? I mean, I'm really happy to be here, but I guess, like, I though you were going to pick girls who you thought you might have a romantic future with. Also, why are Lucinda and Colette in the Elite?" She said. Noah smiled.

"So many questions. I kept you because it's nice to have someone I'm not romantically involved with, and a bunch of the girls I sent home I just didn't see a romantic future with. And Colette and Lucinda are still here, along with one other, because they were the advisor's picks on who to keep because they thought them important to keep here." He said. She nodded.

"Okay. Well, I'm really glad to still be here, but I think there's some other girls who want to talk to you." She said, smiling. With that, she went back inside.

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><p><strong>Okay, super short chapter, I know. <strong>

**I'm really sorry to those of you who had characters I cut! I loved all of the characters, but in the end, I had to make some tough decisions.**

**RQOTD-Big Question-How do you eat you oreos and what's the best part?**

**I twist them in half so the cream and one of the cookies are together, and there's a cookie separate. I eat the cookie with the cream first, and then the plain cookie. Because the cookie is best. Obviously.**


	40. Chapter 40

**So. I haven't updated in basically forever. I know. I'm sorry. I have an enormous school project that's year long and huge, where I need to design and create some clothes. Which is really fun, but also extremely time consuming. Plus I have normal stuff I have to do-like other homework and activities. So my updates are basically just not gonna be as often.**

**But here's the next chapter, so hope you guys enjoy!**

**Thanks to **HestiaAbnegation11 **and **4Love4Love **for being the bestest reviewers ever!**

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><p>Grace's POV<p>

Grace looked around the women's room. It was strange having it be as empty as it was, and not filled with the chatter of the other girls. They'd all packed up with the help of their maids, and had left, and a few from the provinces that were really far away were still here, but would be leaving within the hour. She'd exchanged phone numbers, emails, and addresses with many of those who were leaving, and said goodbye to all of them. Now, all the earlier hustle was gone, leaving behind a silence where the girls who had left used to be.

She looked up as the door opened, and Sylvia walked in, and sat up a bit straighter in her chair. Now they were all sitting in the Women's Room, waiting for Sylvia to give them a talk.

"Good afternoon, Ladies." She said.

"Good afternoon." All of them replied. With that, she launched in.

"You are all now Ladies of the Elite. With that, there will be more obligations than there was when you were simply Ladies of the Selection." She looked at each of them in turn. Grace tried not to move or look away when Sylvia fixed her with the gaze.

"One of you in this room is going to be the next princess of Illea. I intend to prepare you for this in every way that I can, and for the rest of you, they're perfectly good skills to have." She paused again.

"As a Lady of the Elite, you will be assigned some projects. Some of them will affect eliminations, some of them are just so that I can see where you are with something, so that whoever becomes princess, I can instruct her on whatever she needs to work on most." She said. She looked at all of them again, then continued.

"In addition to projects, lessons will start to be more than history and etiquette-you will start to learn some of how the country works, and a princess's duties." She looked at all of them. Colette raised her hand. Sylvia looked at her, and nodded.

"What about a Queen's duties? Will we learn about what those are?" She asked.

"No. Whoever becomes princess will be instructed in that." She said. She looked around, seeing if there were any more questions, and continued.

"You will be asked to participate in events that the Elite traditionally do, you will sometimes organize events, you may meet officials from other countries, and you will sometimes have a project presented on the Report, or have a debate on the Report." She said. She looked around.

"I will expect all of you to behave a step up from what I have. If you do not, there will be consequences." She said. None of the girls asked what those were-they didn't really want to know, but they suspected extra lessons and homework.

"Good. Now, everyone understands?" She asked. They all nodded. Even if they didn't, they would ask the other girls-none of them wanted to admit it to Sylvia. Sylvia glanced at the door.

"You will also be spending more time with the Queen and the Princess. For one of you, they are your future in-laws, so you should get to know them. As the competition moves along, you will spend more time with them." She told them. The girls all looked at each other, excited. They were going to get to spend time with Queen America and Princess Emmaline? That was exciting.

"I expect to see you all in the classroom tomorrow at nine in the classroom." She said, and with that, turned and left the room.

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><p><strong>Kind of a boring filler chapter, I know. Sorry it's so short.<strong>


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